Its hard to play without cheats to pay the heat bill

I thought this was The Sims Mobile forum, lol. Why not move them into a smaller home with less, expensive stuff and clean out the house and their inventories. The bills are high because they have nice stuff, a bigger lot and stuff in inventories. They don't need more than a bed, hardly need a fridge, they won't starve, and can live off the other lots in the game. It was way too easy to play a homeless Sim in this game.

Another thing I do besides making sure inventories aren't glutted both house and personal is to make use of fireplaces. Most of my sims (even the rich ones) use the fireplaces more and wear warm clothes in the house if they get chilled. You can set up a number of cold weather outfits for them to change into in the house.... There is also the traits that your sims can buy, two types one that makes them a little more hardy and one that makes them immune to cold effects. I've gotten these on certain types of sims only but it's available if it really bugs you.

How many sims do you have in the house?

Maybe there are ways to reduce the size of the house or amount of stuff?

My Sims were always wearing cold weather clothes and were always out and about at neighbors or community lots, and my seasons are a week long, so I barely noticed the Sims getting cold, lol.

"Cinebar;c-16710910" wrote:
I thought this was The Sims Mobile forum, lol. Why not move them into a smaller home with less, expensive stuff and clean out the house and their inventories. The bills are high because they have nice stuff, a bigger lot and stuff in inventories. They don't need more than a bed, hardly need a fridge, they won't starve, and can live off the other lots in the game. It was way too easy to play a homeless Sim in this game.

For me, I would add toddler tablets and potty toilets (and maybe a couple of toys?) as well, since my own households have toddlers and children. (I got one with six toddlers in the same household, so I needed the potty stuff, for sure, unless I want the toddlers to go into their diapers all of the time, lol.)

Good idea with community lots. :) I would have to adjust the commnity lots to have toddler and children stuff for my families.

how much was the bill?

If you manage the thermostat properly instead of leaving it on all the time then your bills will be lower. Leaving it on all the time is only for rich sims.

"Hermitgirl;c-16711067" wrote:
Another thing I do besides making sure inventories aren't glutted both house and personal is to make use of fireplaces. Most of my sims (even the rich ones) use the fireplaces more and wear warm clothes in the house if they get chilled. You can set up a number of cold weather outfits for them to change into in the house.... There is also the traits that your sims can buy, two types one that makes them a little more hardy and one that makes them immune to cold effects. I've gotten these on certain types of sims only but it's available if it really bugs you.

I keep forgetting about fireplaces, lol! That’s a good idea! :smile: (I never had a fireplace in my real life houses/apartments, so that’s why I keep forgetting, haha.)

I had my sims wear the winter clothing inside and the seasons are short, and some Sims are out and about, so I didn’t have time to notice the cold weather. I have not bought or used a thermostat (so far) in my own game.

I’m going to extend the seasons to last longer, so I’m reading this thread with interest. ^_^

Great tips and advice, everyone! :smile:

My Sims household always got electricity shut down.. especially during Summers (I play at 28 days for each season, experienced more than 3 times heat wave, multiple blizzard, the heater always turns on especially during winter, but now, they have a fireplace) I don't use any cheat, but I get them to work and paint to pay the bill and I let them in the dark if they still can't pay for it. Few factors can be considered will increase the bills, like the lot size, items, the usage of thermostat, etc. For my Sims, most of the earnings are for paying the bill. Only the extra Simoleons will be used for renovation works. Was a bit lucky as the father has a Fresh Chef trait, so basically they don't spend much on food, because it will never spoil. And the daughter has a Frugal trait. For the current household, the max they paid recently was around 18k, and now, entering Autumn, they are paying around 8k. But, I have another household who is paying around 40k-45k.

I put my sim in an apartment where the bills are fixed, lol! I'm moving them into a house now because the apartment is having issues with things breaking every five minutes and the landlord doesn't fix anything or get rid of the mice since she's friends with my sim. Heating and cooling is definitely better in apartments, if you can stand to live in the apartments.

My bills run about 5,000 from Spring to Autumn and 8,000 during Winter. They've got some Masterpiece art (thanks to a grandmother who was an artist) and quite a bit of collected items in their inventory, and while it's not a huge house, it's not small, either.

I use the auto pay feature to pay bills. The money generally comes out of the household funds about 5 am every Monday. My Sims tend to be early risers (they are up around 4 am), so I just turn the thermostat off. Sometimes there is an option to make the bills even cheaper - say it's Winter, so obviously the heat is turned on, so in that instance, the option would be to turn the heat on "makes bills cheaper". I've had bills as low as $450 with a family of four. When the thermostat is turned off, the bills are around $3500.