outlay

English

From out- +‎ lay.

outlay (countable and uncountable, plural outlays)

A laying out or expending; that which is laid out or expended.
The spending of money, or an expenditure.
Without too much outlay, you could buy a second-hand car.
- 1945 March and April, T. F. Cameron, “New Works Procedure”, in Railway Magazine, page 72:
  Regard must be had to the extent to which the original capital outlay has not been covered by the sum of the annual provisions for renewal, that is to say, in insurance terms, to the unexpired life of the original work, although this financial factor has to be modified in the light of the actual physical condition of the work to be replaced.
(archaic) A remote haunt or habitation.
- c. 1609, Francis Beaumont, Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding
  I know her and her haunts, Her lays, leaps, and outlays, and will discover all.

the spending of money, or an expenditure

outlay (third-person singular simple present outlays, present participle outlaying, simple past and past participle outlaid)

(transitive) To lay or spread out; expose; display.
- 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, OCLC 1049089293:
  Their boggy breasts out-lay, and Skipton down doth crawl
(transitive) To spend, or distribute money.

to spend, or distribute money