Hobby Money!

How to Get a Bunch of Money through the Cuisine Hobby
(without the hassles of earning Career Rewards or running small businesses)

1) Build a Community Lot with lots of food contest tables...


...and a large kitchen with enough counter space, refrigerators, stoves and/or grills for at least four Sims to use.


2) Send at least four playable Sims to this lot. The Sims should be capable of cooking; higher Cooking skill and/or Cuisine enthusiasm certainly couldn't hurt!


3) Have each Sim prepare at least one meal for the food contest(s) (if they don't already have one or more Group Meals in their inventories)...


...and, for reasons to be mentioned here in a little bit, it's best to make each Sim cook a different dish.


4) With four Sims, you can completely hog one of the food contest tables! So do that.

If they have to get their prep food out of this lot's refrigerators, that could cost around 40 or 50 Simoleons for each meal; 56 was the most that any of these Sims paid to get food out of a fridge.

56 (maximal food cost, in Simoleons) x 4 (Sims) = 224 (total maximal cost — in Simoleons — to hog a contest table with four Sims, thus ensuring that someone in your household will win the contest and the reward)


500 (Simoleons awarded for winning the contest) - 224 (total cost, maximum) = 276 Simoleons (minimal net profit for winning each food contest)


And if your Sims are hungry, there's a table with four group meals right in front of them. Grab a plate or a bowl and eat up!


As a bonus, remember how I suggested that each of your Sims should cook a different dish? Do that, finish the contest, then have your Sims eat each other's dishes. Food contests can be a great source of "Learn how to cook [meal]" and "Eat [meal]" Wants for a Sim who's eating a certain dish for the first time!


Alternately, even though it may or may not be a waste of sparkly food, just have one Sim enter a contest with a sparkly meal. Since nonplayable Sims will always enter a food contest with ordinary, nonsparkly food, your sparkly food will almost always — if not always always — win the food contest!


So how do you like to bring in a few extra Simoleons with your Sims' hobbies?