Edit: I guess there was one. It's right below mine. Sorry!

Preface: I have been playing The Sims 4 for quite a while now and had mostly shelved The Sims 3. I was told about a challenge for The Sims 4 and thought this could be brutal in The Sims 3 as nothing is much of a challenge in 4 like it was in 3 (personal opinion).
This is the Sims 3 version of the challenge I have been doing and thought I would share. TS3 has been around a while so it's probably not anything new. I didn't see it posted here in the first couple of pages of challenges. If it has been, my apologies to the moderators.

Story: You find yourself alone on the streets without a place a to call home. You have no money and no place of your own to sleep, eat, or to see to your daily needs. All you have is your perseverance and a desire to rise above your current state and show yourself and the world that even the most lowly can overcome and excel.

Rules:

There are two ways to start. Hard and harder. The basics for both are the same.

1. Make a single sim, no family support. You can have any traits you wish. Life distributes talents evenly. The opportunity to use them, not so much.
2. You must buy a lot due to game mechanics. The idea is to get the smallest one you can and leave it empty. No house, no amenities. Just your trash can and mailbox that come with an empty lot. I edited the town and added a 10x10 lot.
3. As such, you will have to fill your needs using public spaces and by mooching if you choose to take that trait.
4. Console commands or a mod like NRAAS need to be used to remove your money.
a. Console: testingcheatsenabled true. familyfunds <last name> 0. testingcheatsenabled false.
b. NRAAS Master Controller: Using your sim select NRAAS > Master Controller > Household > Family Funds > subtract the amount of your available funds.
5. You can find a job. After all, your goal is to rise from the ashes. I limited myself to a store clerk. Going to work stinky, tired, and hungry won't invoke an appeal to humanity from your boss. In fact, they seemed to act the opposite.
6. No marathon friend making and using "Ask to move in" as soon as you can. No robbing the Goths via the same method but without moving in. Klepto trait is permitted. Knock yourself out, Mr Stickyfingers!

Hard mode: Start as a young adult or an adult.
Harder mode: Start as a teen. You have to juggle school as well as a job. Not to mention that it is rather hard to keep your Sim from obeying curfew.

Hints:

Even harder: use NRAAS' Mover to allow 'no adult' households, then Traveller to flag kids to be able to travel. Add in some of the Children Can series (at the very least the one to allow them to pay bills). This will allow you to run this challenge as a child. Not only is the curfew an hour earlier, there will be no way to cancel out of going home (leaving you stuck overnight on an empty lot). On the up side, you can use the toy oven for food but on the downside, no jobs.

I think I saw this on Netflix once! :-P