Why buy the Chinese clones? With a minor bit of effort you can program the bare chips and use them. I have made my own programmer board with a 20 pin and 28 pin socket and a 16Mhz resonator and I can program 8, 20 and 28 pin chips on it using my Arduino Uno. ATmel and whichever supplier I use make a buck and I don't have to wonder about the pirate company from China or Brazil.
Programing a chip directly is so simple, and takes no extra time and then you can embed the chip any way you want to. Might be better off investing a little of your time into designing a board and having a small batch made instead of buying a ripoff clone.
Personally, I am glad I got the Arduino Uno board to start with. I was able to get a device that worked, I was able to support the Arduino Project and I got the software and this forum. Great deal and a great price.