I did (not) cheat

• I also don't mind the freerealestate cheat, I use it all the time, especially for NPC sims or when starting a story. Lately I used it to symbolise a loan, and have written down the value of the house, so that they need to pay it back to the bank.
  
• Unlock outfits or bb - that's just my call to make.
  
• university.finish_term: I regularly use cheats to get someone through university, never when I actively play them, but NPCs or when I play rotationally since they won't pass university without it on their own. My justification is that the sim in question would go to their classes, do their tasks, on their own. If it's a sloppy or lazy sim I might let them fail instead.
  
• When playing rotationally, I usually cheat the sims needs to be what would be realistic at the time I enter the house when switching households (so if in the morning, they are hungry but rested, in the evening they are tired but have eaten for example...)
  

In general, I use the cheats I want when setting up a sim and their home, because I like a starting point for the story. That might include giving or taking away money, fixing their houses the way I want them to be and so on.

When playing I don't use much cheat during gameplay, not when a sim is the active sim. However, I do use a lot of mods to make the game behave the way I want it to, and I use the control any sim mod a lot, so that I can control the sims my active sim are interacting with. Without it, parties and weddings are unplayable in my opinion.