How do you budget for 'one-offs'

theoretica

As you say - something always crops up, so you need to have something in the budget for them. I can't tell you which will need replacing first out of my car, fridge, washing machine, boiler, laptop... but I can tell you they will all go at some point, and may well gang up on my by going at the same time. Divide each cost by the expected lifetime and try to put that away each month with a little extra for things you hadn't thought of like locks.

bluebag

I have a space in my budget for what I call 'b****y -h*ll items. It's those very expensive things that catch you. Washer blows up, car goes caput you know the drill.
It rarely covers the whole expense.. I suspect I'm too optimistic LOL , but it usually takes the sting out of it. Sadly I don't think it's possible to cover everything.

jk0

I used to have a fund for replacing my VCR. They seemed to last 3 years, so I saved up one thirty-sixth of the cost every month.

As someone above mentioned, you can do this with all your expensive stuff, and save a monthly amount for each item. Then anytime anything packs up, there should be money to replace it.