It is interesting that the word afford (and other words that we often discuss here) bring up different responses for different people and reveal a lot about you. Afford, can mean I have enough money to purchase this thing. It can also mean I have enough money to make monthly payments on this thing. It can also mean, I have enough money that this will not inhibit my long term financial plans. Each way shows a different level of meta understand of personal finances.
Yeah, and while my wife is all on board the "lets spend as little as reasonably possible for as much as we can" even she is sensitive when I say we can't "afford" something that we clearly have the actual funds to purchase. I'm slowly trying to rewire the meaning of that word in her head to associate it with our budget as opposed to potential cash flow.
You need the word "thoil". It means that you have the money but you can't justify spending it. ie - I just can't thoil eating dinner out.
That's better than saying you can't afford it, because you can, you just choose not to spend your money there.