The Finance Minister says they won't be giving money out like lollies on Thursday, despite it being an election year.

Steven Joyce has just been to the printers in Petone in Wellington, to pick up a copy of his first Budget hot off the press.

He said he has been looking at the Government's books very conservatively.

Mr Joyce said the amount that we're in surplus is not huge compared to the overall Government investment, and people would be overstating it to say there's a massive amount of headroom.

He said the challenge of every Budget is to balance all of the decisions you have to make, and then explain to the public what you're doing, because it's their money.

"I've seen so many people requesting so much over the last few days, and I think I'd have to deliver five or six budgets on Thursday to meet all the expectations from different sector groups and so on.

"So we'll just wait and see what happens on Thursday, but it's about balancing the different concerns and interests people have."