@Carl --- I just started TS3 two days ago and your TS3 guide and going on the forum was incredibly helpful, too.
I saw the below in your Sims 3 Guide, and I found out that
if you pause the game and
hold the control key down while you left click, you get tons of points --- very quickly. I got about 150,000 to 180,000 lifetime happiness points per Sim in my household in a very short time --- even shorter than the way you described.
“Cheat for Infinite Lifetime Rewards (Lifetime Happiness Points)
Make your Sim and get them into their house. Save the game once they're moved in, then head back to the main menu. Before you load your Sims 3 saved game again, open the cheat console (Control + Shift + C) and type testingcheatsenabled true. Once you load your Sims game, the testing cheats will still be on. This will allow you to go to the lifetime rewards tab, then control click in the area around the treasure chest icon. The game should be unpaused to do this, or it may appear to not be working. Each click will give your Sim an additional 500 lifetime happiness points. Click away, you've got infinite reward points to spend! Go out and snag that Food Replicator.”
@coolsim9999999