An expenditure is when you spend money but you receive no financial benefit from the expenditure. For example, if you own your own company and you decide you need business card. If you spent $200 for business cards but you never hand the cards out to anyone, you won't gain any business (i.e. money) from the cards. Therefore, you have not received any financial gain from the purchase of the business cards. In business terms, the purchase of the business cards would be an expenditure rather than a cost.