Thread: "Они купят машину, когда смогут себе это позволить"

The question is about: позволять

Someone here translated the following sentence:

They will buy a car when they can afford it.

to

Они купят машину, когда смогут себе это позволить.

I wanted to enter позволть to my word list, so I looked up the dictionary definition. To my surprise, neither English Lingvo, nor English Wiktionary even mention "afford" as a possible translation for this word!

Originally Posted by Lingvo

позволять allow; permit, make it possible, enablе

Wiktionary: to allow, permit
Leo doesn't mention it either.

But Swedish-Russian Lingvo gives:
позволять = ha råd (=afford) ONLY! They give no other translation!



What is going on with this word? Why is one dictionary ignoring "afford" and the other giving it as the only possible translation?

How would you normally say "I can't afford to....... " or "Can you afford that? etc?