I don't like to use cheats when playing my main households. I don't cheat their skills, their needs, relationships, money, etc. I even stopped buying the reward traits that help with their basic needs. I just feel it's more rewarding when they've reached the top of their careers or maximized their skills in a legit way.
With other households, however, I use cheats quite freely. I've removed the premade sims in most of my saves and in order to replace them, I've had to resort to using the free real estate and money cheats to establish the neighbourhoods.