Thought to expend money after employment (4)
I believe the answer is:
used
'employment' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'thought to expend' is the wordplay.
'thought' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'expend' becomes 'use' ('use' can be a synonym of 'expend').
'd' after 'use' is 'USED'.
'money after' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for used that I've seen before include "Employed in task, or second-hand" , "taken advantage of!" , "Hand-me-down" , "Subject to exploitation" , "No longer pristine" .)