One thing I noticed is that things seem to go bad when I turn my plam off while running the program. It seems that the sims don't work so hard when I do this. I have found that the best way is to select menu, then hit my home button and then turn my palm off. Then when I restart VS my food bin is in good shape and my tech points have increased. It seems that when I power off while still in the game, when I go back the bin is always low or on E.