Favorite Offbeat Way to Make Money in The Sims 3

[Carl]

I've enjoyed playing Sims that live without careers or traditional skills. Exploring the catacombs was a waste of time for a livable income, but other methods have worked much better. Kleptomaniac was my favorite, I think, even though you can only steal a few times each night. I laughed a lot at the goofy things my Sim stole. Seriously, there's a laptop in the room and he takes the drapes (they had very nice drapes, though!). It beats stealing the lights outside people's houses. It's probably one of the more interactive ways to make cash in the game.

What way above has worked best for you and what will you try next?

[Pam]

This isn't very offbeat, but the money trees can be VERY lucrative.  One of my families was harvesting up to $50,000 a day from 30 money trees!  The trees don't die if you take care of them and they drop seeds to plant more money trees.  Good money for a gardener!

[Reesaroo]

I agree, Pam.  The money trees have been my big money makers too.  I don't really use any of the methods in the poll (guess my sims tend to be goody-two-shoes).

My favorite method is searching for gems, rocks and bugs.

[Pam]

Lol Reesaroo!  Mine are goody two shoes, too.  I've also got gems and butterflies all over the mansion.  They make nice decorations. 

[Reesaroo]

I don't decorate with them - purely a money maker for me.   

Why do you suppose are sims are always good?  Isn't it good to be bad every once in a while?  I rarely let mine sleep - too many things to accomplish.  Poor little insomniac, overacheiving sims.

[Pam]

It's probably some kind of deep rooted psychological thing.  Lol.  Some people can't even pretend to be evil.  I'm playing the Legacy Challenge, so I don't get to choose the traits except for the family trait of Green Thumb.  Even when they are born evil, I can't make them do bad stuff and I usually cancel it if they're going to do it on their own.  I had a guy get all the way to Emperor of Evil and barely did anything bad. 

[Reesaroo]

ROFLOL!

I'm doing the 3 Little Sims Challenge.  I "remodeled" Claire Ursine, but kept her traits.  Then I added my Avatar, Angela, and threw in a guy for good measure.  They're cracking me up!

Claire is about as "evil" as I go.  She's almost as grumpy as me.

[Carl]

I really gotta recommend you guys trying gold digger, emperor of evil (living up to being evil), master thief (with kleptomania) or heartbreaker some time. I think they're neat to do. Make the evil Sims mean spirited and give the the evil trait so they'll enjoy doing these naughty things. It will let you see many unique dramas you won't see any other way, and give you a glimpse into an entire other side of the game.

[Reesaroo]

Carl, you're right... I know this.  I'm on day 7 of the challenge that I'm working on now.  How about you come up with a challenge for us?  Maybe you could bring us over to "the dark side". 

[Pam]

I haven't heard about the 3 Little Sims Challenge.  How does it work?  I actually have a Sim in my Legacy family who wants to be a Master Thief.  She's evil, but I don't think Kleptomaniac.  She's also a level 10 Gardener, which is rather an odd mix.  Green Thumb is the only trait I'm allowed to choose for them and the family garden (plantation) is so huge that they need everyone to help out to keep the money flowing.  Not many of them actually have jobs with steady incomes.  However, they do own every business in town.  Lol.

[Reesaroo]

Addict1220 posted the 3 Little Sims Challenge over on the Sims3 website.

The Basic Concept:

Follow the lives of three sims cohabitating on the same lot. Using a rotation schedule of three days, you will control each sim just one day in three. The other two days, they will live their lives on their own; they will choose whether to go to work, make dinner, or hang around in their skivvies.

[JohnnyDiscard]

My current Sim is a Master Thief who had Kleptomaniac.  I found it kind of cool at first, but eventually it was getting ridiculously easy to make money with it (stealing cars and statues).  I eventually bought a Midlife Crisis and changed it out for Loves the Outdoors.

It was funny to steal a toilet from a family though.  Even after I returned it, they didn't have one to use.

[Pam]

Thanks Reesaroo.  I'll definitely check that out.  I really like the challenges for playing the game.  I don't think I'm creative enough to think of that stuff on my own.  We should have a topic just for talking about challenges since this thread is supposed to be about ways to make money.

[Reesaroo]

Hey!  How'd you get so many stars, Pam?  I'm jealous... I have one...  Are you a star hoggie?

[Pam]

Heh.  It's probably because I'm a Global Moderator.