Patsy, my understanding is that Paul M grew up in a pretty working-class household. Mother died when he was young and money wasn't too plentiful. John was actually brought up in a more middle-class style - if we must categorise it all in classes.

As for owning instruments, PM had a blonde Epiphone Texan in his early days. I bought a 1964 sunburst Texan in 1966. It was £90 s/h from a music store in Leeds (in the arcade, but can't remember its name). How did I buy it? £5 a month HP for 20 months, or something like that. If you wanted an instrument badly enough, you did what you had to do to buy one. My monthly wage in 1966 was around £800 a year.