"The charts show how much a UK school spent on different running costs in three separate years."

[hardyweineberg]

"The charts show how much a UK school spent on different running costs in three separate years."

"...teacher's pay remained the biggest cost"

Source: Ielts Cambridge 9; the sentences were probably written by an IELTS examiner

1) What does "cost" mean in the 1st sentence? I've checked many dictionaries and am still confused. Cost is the amount something is bought for, not the thing that's bought or paid for.

2) I'm also a bit confused about the meaning of cost in the 2nd sentence.

 

[5jj]

1. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/running-cost
2. Definition 1: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/cost_1

 

[hardyweineberg]

1. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/running-cost
2. Definition 1: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/cost_1

The 1st sentence still doesn't make sense to me, though I now understand the 2nd one.

If I use the Cambridge Dictionary's definition of "running costs", the sentence means this:
The charts show how much a UK school spent on "the money for staff salaries and other things"

 

[5jj]

Why did you single out staff salaries?

 

[hardyweineberg]

Why did you single out staff salaries?

No special reason. I just wanted to list the categories

 

[emsr2d2]

No special reason. I just wanted to list the categories

There's no need to do that. It's a huge list. Just use "running costs". That covers absolutely everything a school needs to pay for to operate.