Have you ever tried to play a “homeless” Sim?

I have done so many teen rags to riches, where they start on a plot of land with no simoleons and no house or anything. It's tough going for awhile. They sleep on benches, fish, collect, harvest, plant and garden. A hint to help them along is to purchase the "Always Welcome" trait at 500 reward points from whims or aspirations completed. Then they can visit someone and use all the facilities in that house without having the person living there telling them to stop doing that. So, they can cook and sleep in a bed, etc. One of the first items I usually buy for my sim is a cheap bed, or if you have outdoor retreat, a tent. Then, a fridge, where they can choose quick meals, and it doesn't cost anything, or a cooler. Next a pee bush, if you have Jungle Adventure, there is one you can get for less than the other ones, otherwise, just a toilet. Then a sink. They don't need a shower, they just have to wash their hands many times and it will get their hygiene up. Those are the basics. As a teen, they can also get a part-time job, which will give them some funds. I also have the teens go to school. If you don't want to get them a part-time job, they can just go to a park, and sing and they will then get some tips. If they go to a bar, they can get "free" chips at the bar. If you have them fish in Oasis Springs at the very back fishing spot (near the cave), that is a good spot to fish a violin. Then they can play the violin and get tips. Also, they can use the free musical instruments available in the clubs, and just play those for tips, or tell jokes in the microphone for tips, too. Heading to the library in Willow Creek to use the computers to write books, make video apps etc. and they will get daily royalties from this.

"Amapola76;c-17942509" wrote:
For those who haven't done this type of challenge before, could anyone share what the cheat is to delete household funds so you can start at $0?

There is a way to do it without cheats. Go to household manager, transfer someone from another household to the "homeless guys" one.

Confirm it.

Go back in to manage households, then move the other person back and transfer all the money too.
It will ask you are you sure?
Click on "yes".

The "homeless guy" will still own the empty lot, but have §0.

Yes, I love playing this way. I even get bored when my sims became too rich... that's why I have a set of rules.
1) You can't sell anything straight from inventory, that's unrealistic. You have to buy a selling table first. To earn money for a selling table my sims usually sing on the streets.
2) You can't live on your lot at all.
3) You can't shower on community lots or you have to pay money to do that (I use LittleMsSam's Entrance Fee mod). Swimming or showering in the rain are the true ways of a homeless sim :D
4) Sometimes I set a rule that my sim can't travel outside of the world they "live in". The hardest challenge was when I was starting in San Myshuno in winter. My sim had no money, no one was grilling anything or even eating from the food stalls (you can steal that food sometimes haha). I think only Night in the Town saved me.
5) Don't use traits that makes sims' lives much easier, like Freegan or reward traits.
6) No free meals unless you've stolen them or found in the dumpster - meaning you can't use coolers or cook anything but fish or beetles on the campfire. Campfire is very good for fresh fish though, so I recommend buying it.

Haven't tried it with the Simple Living challenge yet, and that should be fun. :p

I did though she wasn't so much homeless as "outdoorsy" so I only gave her a tent and camping equipment on her home lot. Everything else she had to seek out elsewhere (random sims cooking at parks provided nutrition, she collected and sold things, made use of the gym facilities for bladder and hygiene). Now she lives in a very large home and works as an interstellar smuggler.

I tried a Rags To Riches challenge once, I made modifications to an existing one. One thing I addded was that the sim had to work as a maid before they could get any other job, and to pay for their outfit (unlocked maid outfit). This can be done either by imagination and retraction of funds after equipping in CAS; or to make a store and buy the outfit there. The work as a maid was to take care of children, cook and clean. This was before Dust The Bust came out, it would be even more fun now. If the maid is made to be a Kleptomaniac they are allowed to steal. Pack Eco Living is great for this, adding mean NAP's and dumpster diving etc.

I also have, in my long term playsave, a lot dedicated for 'homeless' sims, built and decorated to look like an abandoned factory / trash yard, with a couple of tents and so on. I have a household made of 'homeless' sims, that all have done the aspiration Survivalist (OR), to make them cope. I plan to move in a teen there, to start their story being homeless.

It sounds like lightning is a real problem :D

My first night of playing like this and it started raining and my Sim nearly froze to death.

The dumpster diving is a good idea though. I didn’t even know you could do that to be honest, I’ll have to give it a try!

I do this challenge all the time in TS3 (in my opinion definitely the best tittle for it thanks to open world) but I also have a homeless family in TS4. However, it being my first in TS4, I'm still learning how to have the best experience (and actually want to kind of restart it because of this). I developed my own rules for TS3 and am still doing that in TS4.

I have this tradition to always do this challenge with Harper and a daughter who starts as a toddler, that's because it was such an hilariously obnoxious combo with Harper's less agreeable personality (and distaste for children) and having to look after a child sim while being ill equipped to do so. TS4 iteration is basically a direct copy of Harper from TS3 (though way more tame when it comes to autonomous behavior). They always need to travel together, so no abusing TS4's self-care systems.

So far, in TS4, I have developed some rules I want to put into practise the next time I do this. E.g: Don't use any reward traits. I did this time cuz I really wanted to try the "always welcome" trait but I feel it's way too good for this. I think I'm gonna download a mod instead which makes it so good friends (and close relatives) don't mind "inappropriate" behavior. That would still be sufficient amount of challenge because Harper, with her obnoxious personality, has to actually go through the effort of befriending sims. I'm also thinking going with the "your lot doesn't exist" route, a.k.a not doing anything more permanent in there, not even gardening.

"somewhsome;c-17942565" wrote:

4) Sometimes I set a rule that my sim can't travel outside of the world they "live in". The hardest challenge was when I was starting in San Myshuno in winter. My sim had no money, no one was grilling anything or even eating from the food stalls (you can steal that food sometimes haha). I think only Night in the Town saved me.

@somewhsome Really liking this idea. I need to do this the next time. I mean, when allowed to travel between worlds it gives you an easy way to avoid bad weather and such and use all types of facilities. Your idea can add a nice dose of realism too because, well, how are they even able to travel around so much if they have no or very little money.

Tried this first in Sims 3, even made a story on the wall for it. 1 teen runaway, I made her the smallest lot, outfitted with a bench, 1 tree and some bushes, (was supposed to be a park, since she have to live somewhere with game rules). Cheated a bit by having her use the toilet and shower in the nearby gym for a while. Got her a part time job and spend the first 100 simelons to buy a sleeping bag, (I had harder bills on and lower wages and harder to get a promotions mods, so took some time). When she wasn't working she was going around robbing peoples garden of fruit and vegetables to not starve. got caught one time, but the lady was nice, her cats was not. She met a guy, young adult, he was nice to her, she liked him, but nothing more. Then came winter, she couldn't afford to build even the tiniest room, and was risking freezing to death every night, so when he asked her to marry her, she had no real option other than to say yes. He wasn't rich, but had enough to build at least a bed, toilet, shower and a chair inside a house, so they wouldn't freeze to death and then she got pregnant and was trapped even more. He had the trait that wanting him to woohoo with as many as possible and was cheating on her all the time. Was a really intersting story to play, but then my computer crashed.

Also did a similar start in Sims 4, with money still being hard to get. (neither runs I was allowed to pick up stuff to sell, I could use them as decoration, but that was it). Her I had her to go to school so she wouldn't starve to death, and her first toilet was a bush as it was cheaper than a toilet. She managed to not freeze to death and met a nice guy her age, they married, now live in a decent house and she just gave birth to their first baby boy.

I think about 25% of my sims start on an empty lot with money cheat to drop it to 0 simoleans.
They almost always turn out to be some of my favored Sims

I usually give them squeamish, erratic and klepto as traits. If they're unfortunate they get all 3.

My favorite was a man who was a recovering homeless addict who found out his one night stand had a daughter by him and he got his life together so he could be around his daughter but the love story grew and they became a wonderful family over time with much forgiveness and trust.
They're having their second child soon.

I give myself my own rules based on each sims background story. I don't limit to no painting or no dumpster diving or anything. It varies from sim to sim.

My most recent was evicted due to a series of unfortunate events and she gave up her dream of acting to become a florist. She was neat and squeamish so a rule for her was to earn from dumpster diving only until she reached a certain amount of cash then she could earn more legit income.

Some can only steal etc.

Happy gaming!

well i did once have sim live on top of strangerville bar in tent cause i was too lazy to build them a house

it was quite fun given all the possessed sims walking by

you'll basically just want some items to fill their needs like some type of cooking equipment shower and toilet

so tbh i suggest taking advantage of public lots over building on home lot