A couple spent nearly £2,000 in a year looking after budgerigar.

Ghalib Al-Nasser, 71, and his wife Janice, 73, have more than 400 pet birds in their home in Suffolk and they have claimed they have forked out the whopping amount every year on their pets.

However, the couple have described the expensive lifestyle as a ''way of life'' rather than a ''hobby''.

Speaking to Metro newspaper, they said: ''It's not a hobby anymore, it's a way of life.''