Favorite Offbeat Way to Make Money in The Sims 3

[Hosfac]

When I start new games, I typically start with a single Sim on a vacant lot and build the house as I go and I don't use the money cheats.  An unconventional way I make some starting cash is by buying all the skill books available at the consignment store every day and selling them from my inventory.  They will always sell for quite a bit more than they cost.

Your Sim isn't going to get rich, but it will keep him in Mac 'n Cheese while he's waiting for his career to take off.  You can make about $750 on a good day off of a tiny initial investment, depending on how many books are available and their level.

[Sarah_n07]

With pets my new way of making money is having my dogs hunt. I was surprised how much they can bring in from the gems and metal they bring home. Just running 2 dogs and my sim not making any money he had his Lifetime wish of Living in the Lap of Luxury in about a sim week.

Exactly! I now earn around 18,000 ( or more! ) daily, only with a single sim and a dog!

[warr2098]

I like hacking, maybe I shall start mooching now though...

[e1r1i1n1]

Did anyone on here ever think of using the cheat to get money? All you have to do is press controll, shift, c , and when the cheat box appears, type in motherlode. It's a good way to make easy money. Yes I know motherlode is actully not a word but if you type it in just like that, you get 50,000 simolens. This is a good cheat to know if your sim has the wish to be worth several 100,000 simolens. I find it helpful if your decorating a very nice house too. 

[Magz from Oz]

If you want to cheat your way to properity use the familyfunds cheat instead of motherlode.  In the cheat bar typre in familyfunds then space the type in the household name then space then the amound you want to appear in their funds e.g. familyfunds Steel 500000 will give Christopher Steel 500,000 Simoleons to play the game.

[Janna]

I'm not sure if this is unique, but my Gem collecter went to China and came home with some books that had appeared in her inventory.  Plus she found some bags of cash, some coins, artifacts that she sold.  Ended up with close to 5,000 simleons.  Pretty good payback on the cost of the trip. 
I haven't had any luck in find insects, but collect seeds is well worth it, some of the have sold for as much as $45, beats finding gems, rock worth only $8-20 cash.  In Riverview, at each end of the island, I find quite a few seeds that makes it well worth the quick stop. 

Another sim who is an artist delived a painting in China.  At the base camp, you can open the bookcases and take all of the books and sell them when you get back home. 

New to this but compared to my being an artist, writer and surgeons, this is one that I think will provide the most cash and is interesting. 

[Hosfac]

Yeah, the bookcases in the base camp have books in them that you can actually take.  They're not worth anything in China, but once you return they're worth a small fortune.

[Ladybird1399]

My favourite way to make money is with my dog I sent her to look for collectibles and she normally comes back with a gigantic spac rock worth $6000 and up

[NeeNeePearl]

I think my favourite way to make money is through sculpting and painting - my sim has the Born Salesman trait, the Savvy Sculptor trait and the Suave Seller lifetime reward, and he's sold sculptures at the consignment store for thousands of simoleons each! Once a couple were sold at once, adding up to about $16,000.

[jeanamariex3]

I think we should add more to the poll. I've done only one of those things, which was the Money Tree! I used buydebug of course, since I'm a huge cheater. Pre-overwatch days, I used to take advantage of the annoying bug by moving in a Sim that's been hit by that overload car glitch, sell all the cars, and move them out. Mostly, I use the "motherlode" cheat, which I wish existed in the real world!

Having to work for stuff makes the game too realistic.

[thesimslover828]

I'll mention one not one the list, gambling, you can make a ton of money with it, Sims don't even need a job. I won §5,000 with the slot machine and §6,000, with the blackjack table. I highly recommend getting it from the store, it's totally worth the 1,900 SimPoints.
Edit: It was the first day my Sim used it.

[donatello]

I am finding more pleasure in less or no cheating, because it involves me in the actual life of my sim. His challenge becomes mine, and I love the toil/reward feeling. Free cheated stuff just don't make me smile anymore. So now I make my sims work for their wealth, and take care of their health. Back on topic, I had a money tree garden once. Cheated to get it started, but man did it pay off! I've been tempted and teased into deciding that klepto might be for me after all thanks to this thread... Which struck the perfect chord with me at the mention of stealing cars... I love cars so a huge (free but "worked" for) garage is EXTREMELY appealing to my ambition...

[Katie123urgreat]

I am finding more pleasure in less or no cheating, because it involves me in the actual life of my sim. His challenge becomes mine, and I love the toil/reward feeling. Free cheated stuff just don't make me smile anymore. So now I make my sims work for their wealth, and take care of their health.

I totally agree with you there. I used to cheat like crazy, but not anymore. Sometimes I do if I want to build an expensive house, but then I use familyfunds to put it back at a reasonable level. Having a klepto sim is very fun! Especially with the LTW Ambitions gives, it make me want to have a goal. I like my sims to steal the cars, then sell it, but if I really like the item, I would keep it.

[donatello]

Hey, does detonating every car in town, then collecting and selling the scrap cound as offbeat enough??? I think I might have a problem... ("Oooohohohoh I am a pyro, Oooohohohoh I wanna burn it up!" - The Offspring) Lol

[Odinsdottir]

This will prove I'm crazy...

You know how you can go to China in WA and wait for the 4 metals adventure and then spend  the whole holiday strip mining the countryside? Well, I cannot  leave China without giving the guy the metals he asked me to bring him before I leave.  It feels unethical!  I feel a responsibility to give an imaginary person his imaginary share of the imaginary loot.

At the moment am trying to scrape together enough to build a house through kleptomania, writing and mooching.  It's slow going (am on day 3) but I'll get that Vaguester!