I can't bring myself to sit out unless absolutely neccesary. As previous posters have said, playing Tight Aggressive is the key to getting deep in the tourneys, slowing down near the bubble is likely to get you blinded out so the ultimate answer has to be, only play a hand where you are prepared to go all in if forced and be prepared to fold the winning hand if there's a possiblity it can be beaten.
I've changed my strategy to encompass this during freerolls over the past couple of months and am regularly cashing now, not vast amounts but enough to keep a nice bankroll going on all the sites I play. If you pick and choose which cash games you play, at tables within your budgets, it's not too difficult to use your freeroll winnings to build a nice stack.
I stay away from cash tables specifically because it's too easy to blow your whole stack in one sitting, small stakes sng's and mtt's represent the best value for me.
Good luck all on the felts.
