Outgo as a noun means money that flows out, the opposite of income. Your family's outgo includes rent, groceries, electricity bills, and everything else you spend money on each month. A business tracks its outgo (what it spends on supplies, salaries, and rent) against its income (what it earns from customers) to see if it's making a profit.

The word emphasizes money leaving rather than arriving. If your outgo is greater than your income, you're spending more than you're earning, which can't continue forever.

You might also hear outgoings used the same way, especially in British English: “Our family's outgoings increased when we got a new car.”

Less commonly, outgo as a verb can mean to surpass or exceed something, like when one runner outgoes another. But in everyday conversation, outgo almost always refers to money spent or expenses paid.