Maybe you, caralynh, have already found a better way to play, or moved on to a different game, but as there might be many other players suffering the same situation, I think I will add something to expand on czeuch's response.
First, no insult intended, but "have not used any cheats (as I can not find any)" sounds like you said you haven't used any cheats because you didn't find any. So that means you aren't really interested in getting your head into the game, and you won't get very far or have very much fun if you don't try. A wise man once said "It's easy if you play it hard; it's hard if you play it easy." This AnswerHQ forum has people talking about knocking down all buildings and then just farming coins until they have millions and then making the city again. That's not only cheating, it completely avoids the most fun aspect of the game. The challenge. It's like starting to run a race with some friends and then getting in a car and driving to the goal. You don't win honestly and you don't get to run. Two fails. So let's forget the possibility of cheating and think about how to enjoy the game.
Let's talk about how you are "just patiently waiting to gather enough coins" -- you can't often play for hours at a time, waiting is a key aspect. But you have to PLAN what you are going to manufacture, so you can upgrade your properties quickly and manufacture the things you need to combine to manufacture the things you need. Just figuring out what you should manufacture next can take significant time. It's like planning a meal. You have to get the right ingredients at the right time, so start manufactiring and close the game and take a break and when you come back you have the right things to make the right move. Or don't close the game, plan other things. But don't just take the first opportunity to spend some existing resource because it feels like you're doing something. Plan ahead. The Gold Coin buttons will sometimes offer to buy the materials you manufactured to upgrade some residence. Sometimes you want the coins the Gold Coin buttons offer. You want them badly. Ok, then. But sometimes you just say no. You use your materials for your plans instead. Don't let the game push you around. You're the Mayor. This is a great game to exercise your brain in an important and fun way.
You have to plan where Fire, Police, Health and Parks go to make 100% of your Sims happy. You need One Hundred Percent, not 98 or 99. You have to place roads carefully to maximize the number of homes that get into coverage. You don't have to immediately place all residences you are given. Wait till there is a good position. Make a good position. No home can be outside coverage. Stores and Government and Fire and Police and Health and Parks CAN be outside coverage, so (for instance) your Park coverage has to cover homes, but it doesn't have to cover Stores or Police (etc.). Police has to cover homes, but doesn't have to cover Stores or Parks. This means you can maximize the coverage of homes and still have little gaps from each service falling on stores, hospitals etc.. Just move your coverage items about and you will see that sometimes you can cover some homes with some service but leave a gap where it doesn't matter. If there's a place where some service doesn't reach but generally everything else around it is great, then just accept that you won't put a home there. Put a store or restaurant, when you get one, or just leave it blank until you get something to go there, but don't make your Sims live in an undercovered position. The Mayor's mansion, for instance, doesn't need to be in any Fire, Police, etc coverage zone. It's a government building. So it shouldn't be in coverage. It's a waste. But Sims like to live near the Mayor's Residence, so she can be just outside your outermost coverage. Win.
Your city sounds not very big, maybe, but you complained it takes "45,000 coins to upgrade to a 6 lane road" and really you shouldn't need 6 lanes. That's for much later in the game. You will need 4 lane roads for most highrises that are close together, and they can be expensive if they are very long, so make sure you have cross-streets so you have relatively short blocks so when one highrise demands a road upgrade you don't have to upgrade a really long stretch of road. Just the piece of the street that one building is on. Or maybe move the building to a less congested road, but remember the main rule is to maintain 100% happy Sims which means Fire, Police, Health and Parks coverage for every residence. It's easier to do it than write about it.
Finally let me touch on the all-important Education and Transportation, because you said "buildings such as the schools are 40,000 coins yet they cover so little space". It's only the first Education building that costs 40,000 coins. The rest require Keys. The idea is that you will EVENTUALLY be able to place education everywhere, but the game forgets to point out that you don't need ANY Education or Transport while you grow your city. I would encourage you to forget them until much later. Yes, later, you will have to move a lot of buildings to make room to insert Schools and Bus, etc, into your city, and those insertions will cause your population to skyrocket so you had better have a lot of coins ready to upgrade roads. You will then need 6-lanes in many places but you will have a huge city paying lots of taxes to support the services they have been demanding since day one. They don't need schools right now, and they can walk everywhere they need to go. They need stores and factories and -- most important -- always keep ahead on the power, water, sewage and garbage -- don't wait until you're suprised by a crisis when you don't have enough coin to solve the problem. And don't place residences or run upgrades if you are not ready to handle the additional Sims. Poor little Sims depend on you; don't overcrowd them.
Whew. That was fun.
But now my city has manufactured some materials. Gotta go be a Mayor.
