The new ProductivityOpen (Arduino-compatible) controllers are probably the cheapest option on the market right now. It gives you the flexibility of Arduino IDE with industrial grade I/O. Or you could just use the CPU, Power Supply, and Ethernet card to simulate your PLC I/O.
If you’re not stuck on a particular PLC flavor, Beckhoff gives you free programming software (TwinCAT 3.1) and you can also use that to run a PLC on a Windows PC (1 or 2 week reset-able trial without license). This gives you a full featured PLC you can use for testing with Ignition. With TwinCAT OPC-UA, (on this page, same reset-able trial applies), you get OPC-UA access to the Beckhoff PLC running on your Windows machine. No physical PLC is required so this is zero expense; just some time to set it up.
If you really want ladder logic, Rockwell Studio 5000–or even RSLogix 500 has a nicer ladder editor, though they don’t give it away. TwinCAT is great for structured text, which has become my preferred PLC language despite the fact I started out with Rockwell’s ladder logic years ago.
EDIT: I should say full featured PLC with no I/O. We program simulation for all I/O (surprisingly little extra work), so we can test everything but the actual physical I/O out prior to building a piece of equipment.
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Rockwell do have a free version of their PLC software specifically to programme the Micro810’s, called CCW (Connected Components Workbench).
It doesn’t compare to their paid Studio 5000, but then it’s not aimed at being used in major projects. We certainly have used these in some very small projects though where cost is a limiting factor. It’s a decent start to ladder logic. Easier to use than the CODESYS-flavour of editors (whoever thought that manually drawing connecting lines to create ladder was a good idea had no concept of efficiency)
Download link if interested is here, about half way down there’s a Download Software section:
You don't need a PLC to build things in Ignition. You can build Ignition tags that will mimic live input, or you can use the Ignition Config -> Device Connections -> Programmable Device Simulator. I also have a Schedules project in Ignition that doesn't use a single PLC tag. You can install SQL and Ignition for free on your local computer and just build different interfaces.
As far as learning Python, be careful on what you are studying. Ignition uses Jython which is an integration of Java and Python 2.7 (which is no longer supported) so if you lookup instructions for python you might get commands that aren't actually supported by Jython. However, all of the documentation for Jython can be found at: https://www.jython.org/ and you can learn via trial and error. Have fun with it. Also, if you are going to look at learning Jython well then I would suggest putting more time into learning Perpective instead of Vision (my coworkers do not agree with me on this suggestion because they like Vision better).
Learn CSS too!
PM me when you’re ready(a reasonable understanding of python & perspective) and I’ll throw some gig work at you. If interested. At least make a little cash learning! 
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This interests me just to try and get some experience dealing with PLC setup. I have Ignition running on my server PC so it would be cool to get this setup on there as well!
Honestly, this is all I need, I'd just like to get a grasp on everything as who knows what my future career will look like. University is good for none of this other than "learning how to learn" so I'm trying to get a small understanding in controls to hopefully help me out in being a successful future engineer.
Thank you for the information! I'd still like to learn Python as I feel like it is a good language to add to my portfolio and is pretty simplistic. I'll definitely read up on Jython as well though.
That would be awesome! Anything to get some hands-on real-world work. I'm about halfway through the Codecademy Python 2 course. Also, I'm working on a project within Ignition where I'm simulating a warehouse, with reporting, inventory levels, item location, etc. I haven't gotten very far on it as I have very little free time right now (working full time in retail) but it's a really interesting project to me so I've been slowly digging away at it.
Just to expand on this, you will at some stage probably want IO. You might think, OK, so now I need to go buy an IPC (a physical Beckhoff PLC). Not the case. The EtherCat protocol can run on a 'standard' PC, the only thing you need to add is a NIC that can 'talk' EtherCat. There are a range of specific Intel chipsets required for this, details can be found on the Beckhoff website - or PM me, I have one 
You still do need to have some sort of way to use IO with EtherCAT correct? As an example, I have my NIC and ethernet cord but now I need something to plug the ethernet cord into to get access to IO. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Also, are there any videos out there that you recommend to setup TwinCat + EtherCAT?
Yes, that’s where the remote IO units come in handy.
You buy one header unit and at least one IO card. They do a single card with e.g. 8 inputs and 8 outputs. Or you can buy 2 cards, 1 8 input and 1 8 output. There are 2 series, one is older and therefore runs at a slower speed, but if you are buying these 2nd hand off the likes of Radwell, they are the cheaper one… and if all you are doing is pushing a button to activate lamps then I don’t think you will be concerned about the speed!
As to video’s, I recommend you start not by going for a “this 1 hardware box is my dedicated beckhoff rig”, but to just download the software and install it (use a sandbox or VM/docker/etc).
The Beckhoff website(s) (yes plural, they have different one’s and they all have different information…) are a bit hard to navigate when you don’t know exactly what it is you want.
I can give more details on specific part numbers at a later date but roughly for a header and 1 16 point 8in 8 out card cost would be roughly $150. eBay is good too as well as Radwell
Is this something that I would be best off installing onto my server that I have running Ignition/MySQL or in a VM on my local PC?
So the advantage with going the EtherCAT route is cost savings? Get a whole setup for around $150 whereas to get a "normal" PLC setup it would be much more expensive?
For first question, I would say VM on local PC. The reason for this is; then you will have to create a route from your Ignition instance on the Server through to the local OPC-UA server on the Beckhoff instance.
The advantage of EtherCAT is, you can add IO in a modular fashion. Once you want IO you could, instead of dedicating a hardware box to an ‘IPC’, setup Beckhoff on your Server in a VM and dedicate the Intel NIC to it exclusively.
If you want to do AB with remote IO, you could use the driver from @pturmel to do so. This would give you EtherNet/IP comms. The downside is, Studio 5000 is not free, so it would just mean you could get AB remote IO as an alternate to Beckhoff. Of course, these protocols are not OEM exclusive anymore, e.g. you could run a Yaskawa Servo on Ethercat or a Yaskawa Servo on Ethernet/IP.
Not a video, but this is a good place to start with Beckhoff: http://www.contactandcoil.com/twincat-3-tutorial/quick-start/.
Note, my Ethernet/IP I/O driver does not emulate ladder logic. It’s great for simulating the tags from an AB processors, and can scan I/O like one, but you’d have to use jython in place of the ladder logic. I still still think the Automation Direct P1000 with accessories is the cheapest yet most complete way to play with real PLC hardware.
Yes Phil, was aware, hence the comment about having to buy S5K. If all he wants is 1 physical push button and 1 physical lamp, your driver with one 1734-AENT, 1 IB8 and 1 OB8 would do. Beckhoff isn’t big in the states I believe, or certainly has more presence within EU.
Matthew, today’s announcement should help you
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I’m just going to drop this post about Maker Edition here and see myself out.
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Ah, that makes sense! Thanks for the response. So it basically just makes it very flexible in application. You can do almost anything if you have the correct IO.
Thank you, I'll check that out!
Are you referring to the makers edition? That looks awesome, now I'm really going to have to hop on and design something cool! I make homemade kombucha so I'm thinking about a data logger with PH levels and temp levels. Put it in Ignition with reporting so I could check on my kombucha from anywhere!