You might want to try this mod:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=351390 It helps, and to me anyway, it doesn't seem like cheating.
I actaully edited the XML of this one myself after downloading it, becuase I felt it made the opportunities a bit
too frequent. I think I changed the frequency to 0-2 days. Default game is every 2 to 4 days, and the mod I liked changes it to every 0 to 1 day. Once you figure out what you're doing, hacking XML is pretty easy, so you can change it to anything you want to suit your own playstyle.