At the beginning of a new game I usually cheat like a [redacted]. Increase my character's and companions' levels to 10, magic up 50k+ denars and teleport from city to city to buy decent equipment, find companions and recruit a sizable army. I scratched and clawed my way to the top with my first couple characters, and while I enjoyed it at the time, now it just seems like an unnecessary barrier to the fun of facing off against well-trained nobles' armies in large, organized battles. For me, that's where the meat of the game is, so I don't feel the least bit bad about skipping the rat race in order to get to the good part.
Once there, however, my cheating is pretty limited. I generally turn the damage to player down to minimum for sieges so I can actually participate, I may use the reveal map cheat if I can't find the marshal or a quest mob, and I've no compunctions with creating a few thousand denars out of thin air if I'm running low on funds and my men need paying (I appreciate the effort TaleWorlds put into creating a semi-realistic in-game economy, but once again, my fun is in commanding troops and fighting battles, not desperately chasing around the map after bandits and caravans just to make ends meet), but beyond that I try to play legitimately. I'll agree conditionally with the seeming consensus that, at least once I've established myself somewhat, the game really is more fun that way.