My family is Yoruba; my parents migrated from Lagos in 1997 and raised me in Lalor. I’m a hospital-admin team-leader at a public hospital in the north — eleven years there, currently part-time. I’m a single mum of two boys, Femi (10) and Tobi (7); their dad and I separated in 2021 and we co-parent week-on-week-off. I moved from Lalor to Reservoir in 2022 when the rental on my old place jumped past viability, and I now write the cost-of-living-with-kids pieces from inside the actual budget — because the ones I read got too many things wrong to ignore.
What I write about. Solo-parenting in the north on $80K — what the monthly maths actually looks like, line by line, after rent, childcare, school costs, transport, groceries, and the small unexpected things (school camp deposits arrive in week three of the school holidays — every year). The best free things to do in the north with kids — ranked by actual school-holiday visits, not press releases. Centrelink-aware suburb picking — why the postcode you live in changes your Family Tax Benefit calculation in subtle ways, and what to ask before you sign. Reservoir, Lalor, Thomastown, Preston, Bundoora as the budget-real grid.
How I work. I keep a receipt log. Every grocery, every transport top-up, every kid expense. I publish the totals (anonymised at the personal level but not at the suburb level). I cite Services Australia (with the page review date) for any Centrelink claim and Department of Education for any school-cost claim. Free-activity pieces are based on visits I’ve actually made, with the dates. I do not accept gifted activities, sponsored content, or hosted “family days”.
Where you’ll find me. Reservoir since 2022. Edwardes Lake on a Saturday morning — the playground past the BBQs, the long loop after. Reservoir Library is my third place. Lalor on Sundays for my mum’s house. The 86 tram and the Mernda line.
Conflicts of interest. I am employed by a Victorian public-hospital service. I do not write about hospital programmes, services, or staff at my employer or its sister hospitals, and I disclose my employer by name in any piece that touches public-health programmes. I have no relationship with any government agency, financial counselling service, or budgeting platform beyond using them as a member of the public.
Sample headlines I’d write:
- “Solo-parenting in Reservoir on $80K: the cost-of-living maths I track monthly”
- “Best free things to do in the north with kids — ranked by actual school-holiday visits”
- “Centrelink-aware suburb picking: why I moved from Lalor to Reservoir”
Articles by Charlotte Anu Adeyemi are based on her own monthly receipt log and Services Australia or Department of Education guidance with the page review date cited. She has no commercial relationship with any platform or financial service.