Favorite Offbeat Way to Make Money in The Sims 3

[simone23]

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.

On WA opportunitites, unless they specifically request that the metals or gems be uncut, always smelt or cut them before turning them in.  The reward multiplier works on the finished value, giving you a whole bunch more Simoleans than you would get for an unfinished piece, plus you get the cut working toward unlocking the star cut (if that's an issue) and best, there's the chance that smelting those two lumps of mummitorium or platinum will yield extra ingots you can keep!

[Janna]

When I first started to play the game, I also felt a bit unfair in not giving them whatever they asked for before I left.
But now, I see it as they didn't set a date for me to give them whatever the item is.  So I take them home and I may keep one back of what they wanted, go back, hunt up the required amount and then do the next step in the adventure. 

[Janna]

I did this by accident, but figured it might be a way to make a living.  I used the moneycheat to buy my sim a nicer home.  The first time my sim and her new hubby moved to a new house, it was horrible so I moved them to another house.  Found all of the items from the old home was also in the inventory.  Sold most of it and earned some extra money. 

So, I tried it with another sim, used the money cheat to get a nice but not fancy home.  Moved agin and then sold everything.  Then, moved to another house and sold all of the items I had taken, giving me a nice increase in my account.  Moved her again and stripped that house, also of some doors and windows.
I had been doing it to get a good look inside of homes; see better the layout, not for a sim that I was going to keep.  But I would bet you could make some money doing that.
That was before I began using edit town to see the house's layout. 

[jestina]

Probably the most fun ways are not the most lucrative. One of my sims pretty much got by on just rummaging through trash cans and begging people for money.

Maybe i'll try another scam...like getting people to move in with me, selling everything they have in their inventory, and then kicking them out. That can be profitable too if they show up with an expensive car or laptop.

[Odinsdottir]

I just got Pets ( I know, am a slow poke.) and I'm noticing lots of cars parks in Apaloosa Plains and thinking, hey, more cars make for richer Kleptos!

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Conjuration is insane. I conjure some apples, place them on an altar looking end table, and start transforming them. If I'm somewhat lucky, I can get some Soulpieces and whatnot. This got me thinking, does the Lucky trait affect the outcome?

[MarianT]

I don't know if you need the lucky trait. Casting the "good luck" charm on yourself gives you the same moodlet.

[simone23]

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.

I know it's been a while since this posted, but I keep thinking about it - if it makes you feel any better about turning the metals in, the multiplier that is used for quest rewards is like 20x the value of the item.

I used to always turn in the lowest value relic or metal or gem I had that would meet the requirements.  Now, I always turn in the highest - the rewards are worth it!

[Odinsdottir]

Simone23, that's a very good point.

[Majick81]

I know this hasn't been posted in in a while, I hope it's okay I'm replying now ^__^;

I voted the way I make extra money is by solving the unsolveable, which is true as far as my off beat way of making money goes ... but other ways I make money, though maybe not real hard-core, is by picking up any and all seeds, flowers, stones, gems, bugs, etc. and selling them. Some items like bugs and plants, I'll take to the Elixir shop that came with Supernatural; I found that a Mandrake root that sold for only $12 from my inventory, went for almost $100 via the shop; that was a really nice surprise!

I had my Sims grow fruits and veggies, most were between very nice and outstanding, and one day got almost $20k from goods sold at the shop. Granted, I had a LOT of items in the shop - and as I said, were all very nice or better quality. I have my Sims do lots of gardening strictly for money making purposes. I don't want my Sims to be too rich, too fast. Because then I tend to lose interest in the family. So gardening is a slow-paced way for me to keep my Sims with income, without going overboard. Especially the ones that I use as Stay-At-Home moms, gardening is great for killing time between cooking meals and tending to the todd's.

[TheTripWasInfraGreen]

I had a family that started off by stargazing. It's a little inconsistent, but I've gotten some great pay for discovering celestial bodies.

Picking flowers with Seasons is also great for easy money. Cosmos will sell for 600 simoleons, and Twinbrook's festival grounds ended up having about five at once to pick one day. Between that and the wishes associated with picking flowers (1,000 points to pick twenty of them isn't a bad trade-off), it's definitely a cool way to get starting money in a dynasty.

[Shirin]

Depending on start fund availability, you can easily make 500k or more in about 6 hours with the Midas Touch elixir. Quickest way is to buy the most expensive sculpture you can (nothing larger than the one for 12,500 whose name I forget), and Midas Touch, then sell immediately. The value of the sculpture is doubled when Touched - so sell the one, buy 2 more. Sell the 2, buy 4 more, etc. If you buy a whole garden full of the 12,500, and touch them all, you just make so much money!

[RainBeau]

I just did that and made soooo much money!

[Janna]

Sellilng veggies and fruits gave me an idea.  I have been creating a community garden to save and set out for each game.  Some of the plants reach perfect before other can get up to great, trees take a long time it seems to mature to harvest state.

I could either make it just a garden, or enlarge the garden, and leave out the big pond, or no play area and you can plant some seeds, let them start to grow and then change it to residental and they will keep growing, so you don't have to wait for those to reach maturity.
Anyhow, with a garden full of perfect plants (used buydebug to get all of the plants), that could be quite a haul.  Cheat even more and add some spawners of gems and you have more income.  Could also build just a large pond and fill it with deathfish, or whatever gives the most value, that would also give extra income.  That would be like going to the hatchery in Riverview. 

Going to try that and see how much my sim can make in a day from the harvesting. No weeding, no watering, now a type of to a "pick your own" park garden.

[CaramelCat]

My favorite way to make money - though not quite off-beat - was salvaging broken furniture from the scrap-yard.  Now, however, with the Late Night patch, I'm not able to do it anymore :-(

I guess my Sims will have to resort to mooching off their neighbors.