after working a with my new Genuino for a while now, I came up with a few projects that I'd want to utilize it for.
My problem is, that these projects aren't of rocket science complexity (merely turning on LEDs and servos after a sequence of button presses). I don't want to spend $20 on a new Arduino for every such project, and therefore come to ask: does anyone know (and maybe have practical experience with) of a third party Arduino based board, capable of doing those functions mentioned above, can be programmed through the Arduino IDE, at a reasonable enough price (my wishful target is $5, but $10 will do too)?
I often find the best prices on Aliexpress. I also find terrible customer service, slowest shipping, and a really poorly designed website there so lately I've been back to usually spending a bit more on eBay. Sometimes the eBay prices are actually lower than Aliexpress. If you're looking for the absolute lowest price it might be worth shopping around a bit.
I'm personally very fond of the 32U4 "Pro Micro" clones you can get for under $7 in single quantities. With these you don't have to mess with the FTDI adapter and the 32U4's timers are a little nicer than the 328's. If you want to deal with China directly, you can buy them for even less.
There are also several vendors like DF Robotic that make reduced pin count versions. Several are also on Ebay.