I use the Wordpress's default Export tool that takes XML backup once in a week - This is for my blog.

For my money sites I use the automated backup feature by the hosting company

I use this WordPress › WP-DB-Backup « WordPress Plugins plugin that automatically generate your database and email it (every hour, day or week! Depends on you, which one you prefer!)to your mentioned email address in settings. Pretty much like set and forget!

any thoughts?

WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database
tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.

Wp db back up only backups it's data bases. If you want to backup your files you need to download your files and folders located on your server. You can use cpanel or file zilla....