TS2- My First 2 Attempts at the Poverty Challenge

Chapter 1

I first saw a failed attempt at the Poverty Challenge on Youtube.  I searched but could only find another (also failed) on there.  So of course I was intrigued.  I found the thread on the Mod the Sims forums here.  I then continued to obsessively read the entire 10 years of posts taking notes on peoples tips and the rule changes with new expansion packs.  I was all in.  I decided to go for the most difficult version called "old maid" which adds a whopping 35,000 points to the score.  To say I was over-confident is an understatement.  And so here are my first (failed) attempts at the Poverty Challenge:

Attempt #1

For my first attempt I started in Veronaville. (If you know the rules and are familiar with Veronaville you may already know why I failed.)  I placed the "All-In-One Shack" and a 5x5 and created my founder sim.

This is Jenni Pauper.

 Believe it or not this is my first time fishing in Sims 2.  I read on the forums that it's a great way to get simoleans in this challenge.

 This is one of the few "approved" lots for the challenge.  The "all-in-one shack".  At first I thought it was pretty cool but grew to loathe it due to the restaurant style atmosphere.

 Jenni met Kevin at the shack and they had instant chemistry and 3 lightning bolts.  I thought I was so lucky to meet a potential baby-daddy on the first day!

 The life of luxury.

Then after 3 sim days of absolute struggle the unthinkable happened.  The fishing pond froze over!  I looked at the seasons and did a double-take.  Apparently Veronaville has 2 freaking winters!  The rules clearly state that you must have all 4 seasons in your challenge.  So, total fail.  I had to stop playing and start over in a new town with all the darn seasons.

Attempt #2

And so, I start her in a new town-guess I never wrote down which one.  I placed the community lot and 5x5 plot and made a doppelganger of Jenni from the first attempt.  Instead of depending solely on fishing I decided to get a job in law enforcement since it's the highest paying job with no chance of being promoted.  She got fired for poor job performance on her second day.  I shrugged it off and decided to just have her fish all the time like I had originally planned.

Jenni met Troy at the shack and he showed up at her lot later so they fished together.

 5 days since the start and this is all she has to show for it.  On top of that, the darned pond has frozen over!

 So I decide the 35,000 point bonus for not moving sims in is over-rated and move in Troy.  This is the luxury that his $3,000 brought.

 Not getting the old maid bonus means she'll need to have LOTS of kids.  So she's pregnant right away.

 Random snowman pic... because I like them. :)

Troy and Jenni get engaged and married.

 Random penguin patting pic... because I love them!  :)

 Yup, twins.  I upped Jenni's family aspiration to increase chances of twins.  The boy is Tyler and the girl is Taylor.  They barely afford 2 cribs from Troys pay.

 Taylor ages up to toddler.

 Tyler ages up to toddler.

 Okay here's where things get confusing.  Jenni was about to give birth again, Troy brought home this chick whom I did not write down a name for.  I was desperate because I had no place to put the new baby.  So I moved in the chick.  She only brought in $1,000.

Notice the sim panel?  Count.  Yes, twins, again.  *sigh*  By this point I was so frustrated I had stopped taking notes.  I'm pretty sure the boy was named Connor but no clue on the girl.

At this point I have no idea why I kept playing.  Both the working sims had gotten promotions giving me negative points.  I still couldn't afford cribs so the older toddlers took turns sleeping on a pet mat on the floor.  Now the next set is aging to toddlers too.  

Girl ages to toddler as well.  Notice Tyler in the toilet?  This is ALL these darned kids did.

Okay, so how did I fail this challenge?  See the bear next to Tyler?  It ups all a toddler's needs when they play with it.  Yep, I got so frazzled with 4 toddlers that I cheated which is of course against the rules.  Anyway, I kept playing.  It was like despite hating every minute of it and knowing I had failed I just couldn't stop.  Oh yea and Tyler aged to child.  Yay.

Taylor ages to child, badly.  Oh yea and to complicate things even more I got the girl that moved in pregnant.

Oh look there's her name: Kaytlynn.  Luckily she had one baby.

At this point I decided if I had to see another pixalated toddler I was going to throw my laptop across the room.  I have no idea why I kept playing once I cheated and realized I had failed the challenge.  Especially since I pretty much hated all of the sims by the time I quit.  So that's the end of attempt #2.  I posted my failed attempts mostly for your entertainment and because I had taken all these darned pics anyway so I figured why not?  Next up is attempt #3!

Chapter 2