poor man's IO?

["wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm aware of that one can use a gamepad or joystick to provide a "poor man's
I/O interface" for input signals.  But how about output relay closures?
What's available with a USB interface that would lend itself to being used
for controlling switches, presumably with external relays?  I'm thinking of
using something like this for handling stuff like the 12v signalling
question posed in another thread.  I'm not insisting on taking the cheap way
out but would prefer to find something in the sub-$50 range.  Perhaps with
at least 8 outputs?

Suggestions?

-Bill Kearney