I used to be a heavy cheat addict when I had a GBC and stopped playing. Got a DS and Animal Crossing convinced me to get an AR (it was taunting me with all the work I got lazy of doing after 2 months with it). Then I got Platinum and ended up dusting off my AR after a week but hacking Animal Crossing gave me a good reason to cheat in most games.
"If you can get it through hours of grinding, then cheat. If takes days (or months), don't even think about it."
When I got Platinum, I decided the only cheats I will use are: Max Money, Max Coins (after getting Coin Case), Max BP (after I get the VS Recorder upgraded), and Fast Egg Hatching. A lot of money can be explained by using the VS Seeker (or E4) to grind for nearly infinite cash, a lot of coins can just be bought by a lot of money, and you can say you earned a lot of BP through just one of the games (play through until you get BP, retire (or lose), then repeat so the record stays at a minimum). Egg hatching is straightforward.