spend money/time on something (Unit 136)

Pattern

spend + money/time + on + thing

I spent £80 on a pair of shoes.
She spends a lot of money on clothes.
How much did you spend on the meal?

spend + time + on/in + activity

I spent two hours on the report.     (= doing the report, focused)
I spent two hours in the report.     (= inside, with negative connotation: "battling" it)

Why on

on marks the target of expenditure — the thing the money or time is paid out for. The same on that appears in pay money on something and concentrate on something.

The common error

Writers confuse spend with pay and drop the preposition, or pick a wrong one:

• ❌ “I spent £80 a pair of shoes.” — missing preposition.
• ❌ “I spent £80 for a pair of shoes.” — for follows pay (pay £80 for), not spend.
• ❌ “I spent £80 in a pair of shoes.” — in is for enclosed spaces or activities with an activity noun, not purchased objects.
• ❌ “I spent £80 with a pair of shoes.” — with is for instruments or companions, not purchases.

spend vs pay

These look interchangeable but differ:

Verb	Pattern	Example
spend	spend + amount + on + thing	I spent £80 on shoes.
pay	pay + amount + for + thing	I paid £80 for the shoes.
cost	thing + cost + amount	The shoes cost £80.
buy	buy + thing + for + amount	I bought the shoes for £80.

All four say the same economic thing. The prepositions differ because each verb frames the transaction differently: spend treats it as outflow of a resource, pay as settlement of a debt, cost as a property of the object, buy as acquisition.

Time: on vs in

• on — neutral, productive. “I spent the morning on emails.”
• in — enclosed, often struggle. “I spent the whole afternoon in the meeting.” / “I spent three hours in traffic.”

Both are correct. on emphasises what you were doing; in emphasises being inside an event that contained you.

pay the bill vs pay for the bill

We finished our meal, paid the bill and left the restaurant. ✓

• pay the bill ✓ — bill is the direct object of pay (settle the invoice)
• pay for the meal / the shoes ✓ — for + the goods/service bought
• ✗ pay for the bill — the bill isn’t the thing purchased, it’s the invoice you settle; paying for it duplicates the charge

	pattern	example
pay	pay + direct object (bill/tax/rent/fine)	pay the bill, pay your taxes
pay for	pay + amount + for + thing bought	I paid £80 for the shoes

Past vs present perfect

In British English, both work, with a slight nuance:

• “I spent £80 on shoes.” — finished, specific past event.
• “I’ve spent £80 on shoes.” — result relevant to now; common in shops and contexts where the current total matters.

American English prefers the simple past for the specific-event reading; British English uses the present perfect more freely in both readings.

Source

Murphy, English Grammar in Use, Unit 136: Verb + preposition 5 (spend, pay, cost, buy).