Presently, in the US, inflation is 2-3% a year. Savings interest rates definitely don't keep up, but they don't fall so far behind that your money is evaporating.

Save up that 6 months of expenses, and each year keep adding to it to make up for the "evaporating" amount. An extra $1000-2000 a year should be more than enough.

Move the money into a CD ladder, which has a better opportunity for keeping up with inflation, once you're more comfortable (about 1 year's worth of savings). You effectively risk 1 year (but the cost of breaking a CD open early isn't that bad if worst comes to worst). You put your money into 4xCDs at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. As each comes to maturity you bump them to 12 months. So every quarter you have one quarter worth of expenses accessible. Keep 3 months worth of expenses in your checking account to ride out the wait for the first CD. Now you actually have 15 months of savings. A single, competent tech worker can easily achieve this after 3 years, probably earlier, outside high cost of living areas.