ANALYSIS: No frills is right. This is a budget Budget. Not a single frill in sight.
Despite giving himself $4.5 billion to spend - Grant Robertson has not let off an election bribe bazooka. He's small targeted.
Very specifically, families with two year old children win big. Twenty hours free ECE is extended to two year olds from March next year - previously it was only for those aged three and up.
That can save households up to $133.20 a week.
This is a twofer policy - it eases a cost of living pressure and the Government will be hoping it has the flow on effect of closing the gender pay gap by making a return to work worthwhile for women.
But it's not an election year Budget.
The quintessential 'middle New Zealander' gets bugger all. Sure their kids might get a free bus ride to school and if they get ill they're gunna save five bucks on a prescription.
Free drugs is not the vote winner it sounds like when we're talking antibiotics. The mega pharmacies popping up in major centres already offer free prescriptions.
To be fair, the Finance Minister was reasonably hamstrung - the hype around tax cuts has been hectic, as it always is in election years.
But the economic environment was tricky to navigate there. While households need more in their back pocket, he believed giving it to them would pour fuel on the inflation fire.
And there is good economic news on the horizon - inflation is forecast to have peaked, they're picking it'll be below 4 percent by the beginning of next year and crucially, Treasury is no longer predicting a recession.
But what they've cobbled together in this bitsy Budget is really only bits and bobs that'll help a few out.
This is not the bread and butter Budget the Government sold us.
Instead they've dished us up a "Breadcrumbs Budget".
Jenna Lynch is Newshub's Political Editor.
