An <em>expense</em> is an individual cost, and you can count them: "Travel is our biggest expense." <em>Expenditure</em> is the act of spending or the total amount spent, usually over a period: "Public expenditure on transport rose four per cent." Roughly, expenses are the items on the list; expenditure is the bottom of the column.
The core difference
Both words describe money leaving your hands, but they operate at different zoom levels. Expense is granular and countable — one expense, three expenses, a long list of expenses. Expenditure is aggregate and usually uncountable — you rarely say "three expenditures" outside American financial reporting, where the plural does occur.
There is also a register difference. Expense is everyday English that anyone uses. Expenditure is formal, and belongs to budgets, government reports, accounts and economics.
How to use expense
Use it for a specific outlay, and in the many idioms built on it:
- "Childcare turned out to be an unexpected expense."
- "Submit your expenses by the end of the month."
- "She redecorated at her own expense."
- "He grew the client list at the expense of quality."
Note that the last two have nothing to do with a receipt: at the expense of means "by sacrificing". Expense also works as a verb in accounting — to expense something is to record it as a cost in the current period rather than capitalise it.
How to use expenditure
Use it when you mean spending in the round: "Household expenditure on food has climbed steadily." "We need to bring expenditure in line with income." It pairs with a small set of modifiers you will meet constantly in finance — capital expenditure (money spent on long-lived assets), operating expenditure, public expenditure, discretionary expenditure. None of these phrases takes expense as a substitute.
The test
Try putting a number in front of it. If "three ___" sounds normal, you want expenses. If instead you could swap in "spending" without the sentence tilting, you want expenditure: "public spending rose" works, so "public expenditure rose" is right; "my biggest spending" does not work, so it is "my biggest expense".
The overlap that trips people up
In accounting the two are not interchangeable even when they look it. An expenditure is money paid out; an expense is that outlay recognised against a particular period's profit. Buy a van for £30,000 and you have made a capital expenditure of £30,000, but the expense in year one is only the depreciation. If you are writing for accountants, keeping that line sharp matters. In general business prose, choose expense for anything itemised and expenditure for totals, and you will not go wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it "expense report" or "expenditure report"?
"Expense report" — it lists individual costs an employee has incurred. An "expenditure report" would be understood, but the standard business term is expenses, as in expense claim, expense policy and expenses form.
Can expenditure be plural?
Yes, but sparingly. "Expenditures" is standard in American financial and government writing ("capital expenditures fell"). British usage generally keeps it uncountable and says "capital expenditure".
Which word do I use for a personal budget?
Either, depending on the level. Individual lines are expenses ("rent is my largest expense"); the total is your expenditure ("my monthly expenditure comes to about £1,800").