It wouldn't be so bad if you actually saw the pet before agreeing to keep it. I watched one of my sims buying a golden retriever, decided it was a suitable pet, agreed to it when I next played him, and then discovered he'd actually bought an ugly grey cat. What's the point in letting us choose which breed is displayed if they don't even get the same species?

I usually entirely ignore the social side - the meal and tour will generally get me in easily. Any schmoozing is desperation only.

I always have children do homework early the next morning - that way they get the want to do it, and go off to school in platinum.
Maxis coding means that kids will generally put homework on a desk if it's reasonably close, with two problems
1. All kids coming home at the same time try to use the same desk, leading to whining that they can't get at it.
2. They seem unable to tell that a desk is occupied, so will attempt to put homework on the computer desk.

What happens if you use the family funds cheat and have more than one family of the same name? I have at least three Johnson families, for example, and four Prendergasts. I'm not particularly bothered, as I have hacks that work better, I just wondered how the game coped with it.

Orikes, I get the same problem, but mine's because I'm playing on a laptop. A little note hidden somewhere in the readme says the game may or may not work with laptop video cards - so basically my computer's allergic to the Sims. And many no-cd cracks for other games, too. Saving every sim-day seems to be the only solution.

I rather like OFB because it gives me something to do with all those adults and elders who by halfway through adulthood have maxed all their skills, reached the top of at least one career, had all the kids they're going to have and have more money than they know what to do with. Pets I will use in much the same way - useless elders can spend their time teaching pets, rather than just being ignored until they do something stupid.

After nightlife, the loss of a grade (or work performance for adults) happens 1 hour before they are due to come home, rather than 1 hour after the start of school/work, because with cars it is possible to get them there later. If you drive them to school after 10am they won't lose a grade, but they won't gain one either.

A dogs master will be 25% faster at training it. If you don't give pets a surname in CAS, they will automatically get the family's surname when you move them in.

The caps for levels 6,7,9 and 10 of the politics career appear to be set to -1. No wonder my sims weren't getting promoted.

I had just remembered it was no20khandouts. I have both in my game and playing nicely now though, so I must have found some way to fix it. Try getting new versions / changing which inteen flavorpacks you have installed.

I also had this problem - I believe it's Inteen conflicting with something else. I can't remember quite what but I think it was something to do with money. Inteen alone is fine.

Some people on MTS2 were getting the same problem, don't know if they had hacks or not though.

Selling the wornable fridge, and I think the medium one too, and buying a new one is cheaper than ordering food.
Wornable fridge = $375
Groceries = $450
It's also much quicker and less faffy.