Do you ever send your sims out to earn extra simoleons by doing some of the in-game features (I'll call them 'mini job until someone comes up with something better) like bar tending, barista-ing, personal training, music/singing busking, or food serving and tutoring - these latter two I think are UNI only options?

1. If you do, how often?
2. Do you incorporate it into their schedule (i.e. Molly Simmerson goes to a community lot Every Thursday from 7-11 pm to try and get tips playing guitar) or do you send them off to make extra money just when needed?
3. Do they have one of these specific 'mini jobs' or are they a jack of all trades and do multiple?
4. Do they stick to a specific place or do they rotate around town at different bars, coffee joints, etc?

I've done it a few times, usually with sims that live downtown in apartments and they need the extra money to make rent because they aren't far enough up on their career ladder to make enough per week that the apartment costs so are working in a deficit. I usually have them stick to one specific coffee shop or bar to earn the money. I can only think of three sims I have done this constantly with (a bartender, barista, and musician) and it wasn't just a one-off - 'I'd like them to get some more spending money' scenario

Some ideas I have just writing this thread that I'd like to incorporate in the future involving these types of 'mini jobs':
-A sim with high creativity skill that plays piano either at a fancy restaurant or dueling piano bar for tips.
-Have a guild of 'certified' drink mixologists who are like contractors and go to any bar they to serve, like the bars are hiring someone from the guild to bar tend.
-After the first personal training encounter, that sim is now a 'client' of the playable sim so then the next time I send them to the gym I would teleport the 'client' so they can continue to get trained.

Any other fun ideas for these or that you have done?

Let's hear it!

I have Gunther Goth give financial advice while he's at his bank. The others I'm not so bothered with though I have certain sims write or paint for a living.

Ooh, I actually do this a lot with my teens and low-income households.

If you do, how often?
One thing about the jobs is that I limit them based on economic brackets, qualifications, and connections. Since non-college graduates are limited to NPC careers in my game (and thus have meager salaries) and nearly all teens are barred from part-time carpool jobs to sync them with the adult NPC careers, most of them are allowed to get a part-time job after school or work even though they're not strictly seen as employed by the game. I play universities in the main hoods, so adults and young adults can work in the kitchens, though that does limit the opportunity to tutor someone for money.

Regarding qualifications, I don't see a sim without a single cooking point working in the kitchens, for example, but since she has some body skill points and is on the active side, she can go help out at the gym. One has a sister who worked as a dancer in a bar and he autonomously cleaned up while waiting for her, so his connection was able to land him a job as a bartender.

Teens can't use the ShinyTyme cooktop or the barista counter, so they generally go to community lots that have the culinary career reward to make candies and just imagine that they work in the "kitchens." Busking, performing for tips, painting, and similar work is the least populated part-time option because I limit them to areas that are likely to allow them and to sims whom the owners of said establishments have given permission to perform. As such, it's often sims who have high creativity or charisma skill points who have the job. Why should a posh restaurant owner allow a piano novice to play at his establishment?

Some don't even go for these options and, ahem, go on multiple dates instead and sell the date flowers as their simulated fees; I used to allow date gifts but some of them were too expensive to allow in-game. Children can sell lemonade, but I also limit this based on interest and character. A lemonade stand can be expensive for certain households and the profits aren't normally much, so it's not an ideal option for some.

All in all, I have several sims employed in any of these "part-time" jobs, though it can be difficult to match a sim to a job with my playstyle of motivation levels influencing skill point acquisition. There are teens who don't have a single skill point.

Do you incorporate it into their schedule or do you send them off to make extra money just when needed?
The schedules vary per sim - I take personality/aspiration, interest in money and work, home situations, and motivation level into account. Some work from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM on the weekdays - usually these are those with their own families, so they typically sacrifice their nights to get the weekend off. Apartment residents who take turns cooking in the common area kitchen usually have this schedule as it allows them to stay close to home. Others, especially lazy, low motivation Pleasure sims with no interest in work and money, won't do a thing until the repo-man is knocking on their door. Then there are those who spend nearly all of their free time working.

Do they have one of these specific 'mini jobs' or are they a jack of all trades and do multiple?
I only let them have one part-time job each, catered to their interests and circumstances, to simulate an "official" part-time job and out of convenience. I have so many part-timers, I'll be confused if any of them have more than a single job. If a sim seems to fit a specific job or has useful connections, then off they go with that job.

It's not an in-game feature, but Monique's computer is useful for working at home, yet I find that high-skilled sims earn quite a lot from them, so I thought about it and decided to limit those who can use them. I consider the papers somewhat like genuine published articles and require a certain amount of expertise to be able to write articles. Same goes for financial advice and writing novels.

Do they stick to a specific place or do they rotate around town at different bars, coffee joints, etc?
They generally stay in one area both for my convenience and also to simulate an "official" part-time job. There are a few sims with the same job, so I also like to space them out to use a variety of the community lots even though they have the same function. I have one barista who works at a spa (I just pretend she's serving tea even though the barista counters don't have them), while another works at a library, and a third at the museum. It also gives me a change of pace between them - I'd be bored if all of them worked at the same building all the time.

In my Victorian hood, I had the Newsons and a CAS family take these part-time jobs. The teens had fixed hours as they all worked at the same place; the father of the CAS family was a barista who kept getting fired and having to try somewhere else the next day (that was how I interpreted the ridiculous nonsense by which a Sim working as a barista would be distracted from the job after only a very short time - I think there's a mod to fix it but at the time it suited my storyline). Children and teens were allowed to fish on Saturday afternoons, but if they tried at any other time, or if an adult tried it, and the gamekeeper (Cyd Roseland) caught them, they faced a heavy fine.

Elsewhere, I sometimes allow Sims to write novels or articles for a living - young mum Georgia Gavigan finds it a convenient thing to do while her toddler is sleeping or playing; once he's at school, she'll probably look for a regular job. She's a graduate and sister to General Sir Gavin Newson, so she has both the intelligence and the connections to write newspaper articles.

Most of my authors have some other source of income as well. This is realistic, as writers are not paid a living wage. A spouse with the Fortune aspiration is an excellent foundation for a writing career. Mr. Big of Drama Acres was independently wealthy, married to a doctor, and employed as a Professional Party Guest when he began his Romance-writing career.

Pleasure sims are the most likely ones to have irregular sources of income. Derek Zarubin (the black Tricou) does not work for The Man. He hustles pool, freestyles or plays piano for tips, plays poker, and otherwise picks up money where ever he can. He's also put in a good chunk of his adult life looking after other people, like his sister Bad News Beverly and her kids, and his husband Skylar and alien stepdaughter Estella. Beverly's husband is the president of a sporting goods company and Skylar is in the SCIA (but don't tell anybody). Eppie Curian's wife Tiffany used to be in the paranormal career, but once they had a good nest egg together and Tiffany got artificially insiminated, she quit her job and they've managed quite well on their savings, growing their own food, and the occasional restaurant guide.

In Widespot, Candy Hart got a one-time hush-money payment from Rich Mann which enabled her to move into her own apartment downtown, where she raises her son Arden, goes on dates, collects child support from Junior Mann, and writes romance novels. Junior has proven to be a bit passive-aggressive about child support, tending to be late with it when he's angry at her over something, but the landlord is in love with her and is patient about the rent. She alternates between intense bouts of writing all day and "research phases," when she goes on dates, throws parties, and lets her creative well refill. Junior has finally moved out of his parents' house and gotten his own place and a job, and he's pressuring her to marry him, while Rich and Lana are trying to alienate Arden from her with the intention of his inheriting The Business one day, so she has plenty of real-life inspiration.

During the GS Uberhood Challenge I did awhile back, two of the Widespot Four grew up wanting to become rock stars, so they convinced the other two to start up a band in college. I would send them out to musical venues to play together for tips on as regular a basis as anything ever is in my play. Heartocalypse was still going strong when I finished the challenge, but never at any time was playing for tips the only source of income. In college they also had grant money and after graduation they all got their LTW careers, plus two out of three spouses had jobs. This sometimes made getting the whole band together to play at the same time awkward, and the spouses sometimes had to take up an instrument. I tried to have them play at least one gig per semester in college, and two or three times a week as adults, but I don't do anything on a schedule in this game. Too much work!

And as for always sending them to the same place - the heck with that. I get bored of using the same venues over and over again. I set up extra music venues for Heartocalypse and most of my lots have something on them that somebody can do to earn money, so I can send them different places at different times.

1. If you do, how often?

That depends how skint for cash they are and what kind of 'job' it is. For some it's full time others are part time.

2. Do you incorporate it into their schedule (i.e. Molly Simmerson goes to a community lot Every Thursday from 7-11 pm to try and get tips playing guitar) or do you send them off to make extra money just when needed?

Homeless sims can bin/trash can scroung and play for tips whenever.
my homless teen mostly collected beach treasure while it was light since want her out after dark both for her safty and for her being questioned.
My bar tender aims for 9-5.
My restauranteurs would write a guide thingame whenever they could


3. Do they have one of these specific 'mini jobs' or are they a jack of all trades and do multiple?

I only allow certain people to do certain things. So my bartender is the only one who tends bar and my mechanic/Jack of all trades is the only one who I teleport in to make repairs.

4. Do they stick to a specific place or do they rotate around town at different bars, coffee joints, etc?
I tend to have my favourite spots simply because it fits them/makes good money/has needed facilities. My homeless sims always busk at this one park since it has bathrooms and grills. My bar tender tends bar at Frisks because it's low end like his NPC job. Every now and then I might change it up.

I have a few Sims that write Novel on the side, and also I have Sims growing produce like fruits vegetables for extra money.
Oh and another Sims make Chocolates to sell, then I have a Sims who is a lawyer that can also use her career reward to make extra money.

Also my gamer can make extra money with his career reward. And now that I have the "Begging Mod" my somewhat not so dirt poor Sims can do that.
Actually any Sims have the option to beg for money with that mod. For those that are interest in that Begging Mod go to this link and scroll down to Post #5 by Goldenbtrfly
http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=608365

I'm getting some good ideas here, thanks. I have one Sim who only writes novels - no other job. He has sold at least 6 best-sellers. His wife does have a job and he's from a wealthy family so he doesn't really need to work, but it would've been possible to survive on his income.

Looking at my post... yeah I shouldn't post before 8.

If you meant only jobs or 'gigs', then business lots wouldn't qualify, would they?
I've got a few pixels who do decent sales at their business lots, and they never have to work a regular job. Heck, they don't even have to be open more than a couple of days a week to make enough money.
I view it as a part-time job and one that can go on hiatus until they get around to being open again. Whenever that is.
The DJ gig tends to tire out the musicians, so they don't go to that lot which has the big bad machine. They'll wipe themselves out having a great time.
Otherwise, no real 'alternative money' things besides going to the Town Dump and surfing for goodies. That's a grubby but financially attractive lot.

Some of my sims are in bands (groups on the phone and all) - so they go and perform together. The elder band from the retirement hood rocks!

Tend bar/Barista/DJ - I do use those more at Uni than in the main hood, and when needed.

Some of Sophie David's mods with tutoring at Uni earns my students a reasonable bit of money.

Some Sims are quite good at hobbies so they sell their pottery/flower arrangements/toys, etc.

And of course there is digging. My digging site is a rather popular community lot, and sims in dire need of money can go and look for anything they can sell there Even bones and rocks help a lot when money is a problem.

When I first read the title I thought some of your Sims were wanting paid in Bitcoin rather than Simoleons!

I have a hacked chair from our sister site that allows my Sims to perform private dances for each other for a fee of §80 a dance. Many Sims just do this occasionally (it's autonomous) but a couple of them have made a full-time career for themselves as "exotic" dancers. The two of them tend to work the same club regularly, because it has four of these private dance chairs. Working together they can easily earn over §1,000 in a night, pausing occasionally to buy a §25 energy drink from the vending machines. They started out rather poor, but have found this career quite profitable. They have even started to put paint and wallpaper on the inside walls of the hut they share. They've even put curtains at one of the windows.

Craig Royce (aka "The Slob") gave up his job in the slacker career to write novels. Despite many attempts, he never seemed to get any promotion there, and he simply found writing was more profitable. He is also warden of downtown Veronaville's Teen Townie Hostel, but this is an honorary post without remuneration. As the Hostel's only computer is provided for the teens to play games on, Craig writes his masterpieces the old fashioned way with pencil and paper (thanks to a hack by MogHughson).

Extortionately high bills charged in LGU's dorms have forced students there to work as baristas. Thy found this work surprisingly well paid, which was quite a relief, especially for the Nerdists , who would not have been happy doing "exotic" dances. (I really must do something about those bills, which are spoiling my Sims' enjoyment of higher education.)

The Printer Sisters at LGU are my first band. I believe their main focus just now is on getting their degrees, but I think at least JoAnn would like to keep the band together after graduation.

Other Sims occasionally have a whim to work as the DJ at a club, or similar work, but nobody does it regular source of income. Of course Aidan Jamieson's DJ-ing skills are a prime attraction at his boyfriend's Anything Goes club in New Desconia, but Aidan is employed, so that really doesn't count as casual work.

In addition, if you ask a number of my Sims what they do for a living, they will tell you they're in "Financial Forestry". What they actually mean is that they grow money trees!

Financial forestry - hehe I have to remember that one!

It depends on my neighborhood.

I rarely have alternate jobs for my sims in Blue Point Bay. It's gone from a small town to a city. There are currently plenty of jobs right now (and that has given me an idea for a neighborhood challenge...). However, Sedona is very far out of the way from any actual town. Traditional jobs wouldn't work as the commute would be absolutely ridiculous. The only real traditional jobs in that town are military, since it's near a base.

1. If you do, how often?
For Sedona? All the time. One sim makes his full living giving financial advice and beekeeping. He sells the jars from cart in front of his house. Another is a full time writer, but his spouse is over the new local school. The game and CC gives you plenty of ways to make money.

2. Do you incorporate it into their schedule (i.e. Molly Simmerson goes to a community lot Every Thursday from 7-11 pm to try and get tips playing guitar) or do you send them off to make extra money just when needed?
A little of both? My doctor in Sedona works in the SimCity emergency rooms twice a week. The rest of the week he runs his clinic, but, being in such a remote place, he doesn't have too many patients. He usually researches and writes health articles during quiet times.

I have another recently married pair that own a home business. It's a small general store that they went into debt to get running. They do have their own jobs at the local base though. Not military but intelligence and science. They run the store most of the morning, but thankfully have alternating work days. One will go to work, while the other continues running the store into the evening. They've even hired a local to help out during the evenings.

3. Do they have one of these specific 'mini jobs' or are they a jack of all trades and do multiple?
They tend to find their niche and stick to it. Another one of my Sedona residents makes clothing and sells them online. He's not really interested in anything else other than romancing and sewing.

4. Do they stick to a specific place or do they rotate around town at different bars, coffee joints, etc?
My sims stick to home, but I have had a homeless sim in Blue Point play music for tips. He rotated between the local park and a really popular restaurant in town. It helped that he could sneak meals, wash, and nap in both locations. He wasn't allowed to use the gym.

My giant posts and I...

Not really, although I do like to make Fortune sims occasionally give financial advice or send the odd single Sim off to do "landscaping" (digging for treasure) to earn a few more pennies.

In Hazelton, my self-Sim was an author. While she pounded out her latest novels, she sent all her dogs off to work!

I think of these jobs as 'flexible jobs.'

1. If you do, how often?
A lot of my Sims use them to supplement their income, rather than actually replace it - usually when they want to purchase something out of their price range or are just a bit short on bills.

2. Do you incorporate it into their schedule (i.e. Molly Simmerson goes to a community lot Every Thursday from 7-11 pm to try and get tips playing guitar) or do you send them off to make extra money just when needed?
Usually the latter. Although one of my Sims who has a band goes out most nights to a club. (I use a group outing and then make the other members of the band selectable to get them onto the instruments. They share the tips with the singer because he can't get tipped.)

3. Do they have one of these specific 'mini jobs' or are they a jack of all trades and do multiple?
Depends on the Sim.

4. Do they stick to a specific place or do they rotate around town at different bars, coffee joints, etc?
Depends on the Sim, as well.

1. If you do, how often?

I do these, and call them "side jobs". Though since some Sims cheerfully coast through life only earning income from side jobs, that may not always be the right term.

2. Do you incorporate it into their schedule (i.e. Molly Simmerson goes to a community lot Every Thursday from 7-11 pm to try and get tips playing guitar) or do you send them off to make extra money just when needed?

I send my Sims off when it makes sense for them to do so (whether they need the money or not - band members may do regular gigs because they love the thrill of audiences dancing to their music, for example) - provided I am willing to spend the necessary time waiting for the community lots to load.

3. Do they have one of these specific 'mini jobs' or are they a jack of all trades and do multiple?

Those who do side jobs are usually prepared to do multiple, though usually related. Those band members frequently mix in work as baristas or bartenders but are never seen as massuses or personal trainers. My personal trainer does barista work but won't even enter a place with a bar if they are a playable Sim, let alone work at one.

4. Do they stick to a specific place or do they rotate around town at different bars, coffee joints, etc?

Rotate around town. Unless they're personal trainers... ...there's only one gym in town right now

I've had sims use the career rewards like the pinball machine and a charisma podium that I;ve got unlocked in buy mode on residential and community lots from a Mod I installed to unlock them.I've also recently added another Mod to allow any age group teen or older take part time jobs though adults and elders have a choice of part time or full time now because of that Mod.I also have tons of green energy sources on many apartments that are subsidized housing for poor sims.

The money making opportunities is one of my favorite aspects of the game. I’ve been using the in-game alternative money making methods in addition to mods that enhance these options in my game for years. I also use these options alongside careers.

College students with high charisma and music/dance skills can make money as a DJ or bartending evenings and weekends. When I’ve had a dorm cook on a dorm lot I had a student who worked a set schedule. I have mods that pay better wages for bartending, barista and DJ’s.

College students with high body skills and fitness enthusiasm are personal trainers at the campus gym. Sims employed as a Personal Trainer (custom career) supplement their income at the local gym as a personal trainer.

Sim in custom Jazz career supplements his lavish lifestyle by playing for tips at the Jazz Club which he will eventually own when he makes enough money to buy it.

I’ve had a Sim who restored cars for a living; for this I used BO’s sellable car mod (http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/thread-921.html) which allows me to click on the car to sell it and the money earned is added to the Sims overall wealth.

I have a Sim who makes her a living as an artist and novelist. She has been making money for her art since she was a child and wrote her first book as a teen. In addition to the money she receives per book or painting, she also gets royalties for her novels and art (Royalties Mod http://modthesims.info/d/229101). She also owns a bookstore where she sells her novels and books other Sims have written.

Fortune Sims who are business minded, business owners or are employed in the business career or custom investment banker career to make money giving financial advice. I also use investment Silver (http://modthesims.info/d/218274) as a way for Sims to invest and save money.

I have a stay-at-home mom who makes money writing restaurant guides; she is almost making $4,000 per guide.

I also use Monique’s write article feature as a way for some Sims to make extra money. I have a Sim who is employed in the Journalism Career; he also owns the local paper and employs 3 staff writers who use this feature on his business lot.

There are so many ways to be creative and for Sims to have non-traditional ways to make money.