Can't build or buy

[Honey+Siberius]

When I opened up build or buy mode to buy some things, it wouldn't let me do anything because it said there was a fire or something (in the bottom corners of item icons in the buy section was a small icon of a house on fire, and I heard a fire noise when I opened build or buy mode, and there is no fire going on). I really want to age up one of my sims but because of this I cannot buy the birthday cake. I have tried re-opening it multiple times and saving and quitting then reloading, but it does not work.

[SmartieGirl21]

I've had this same issue before, it was due to the meter by the house on fire being full (fire meter). This means there is too much stuff in the house, and you need to get rid of some things before you can buy anything else. One of the disadvantages of having the console version instead of the PC version.

[Grim Reaper]

Yeah on the bottom of the screen in build/buy mode there's a bar and to the far right is a picture of fire.  It's the fire code meter.  Basically if you have too many things in your house it's a fire hazard.  It stinks when you try to build a mansion and you can put enough furniture in your room.  You will know if the fire code meter is full or almost full because you'll hear what sounds like something being engulfed in flames and a beeping noise that sounds a little like a fire alarm in a house.

Basically, as mentioned, you need to delete some stuff to make the meter go down.

[rohebat]

The fire meter goes up even if you just have lots of fruit or fish or something in your inventory. My fire meter was full once and I got it down quite a bit just by selling apples and tomatoes and other stuff that I had too much of. I got some money out of it, though, and I did have 50+ apples probably