You ever try a simple sign that says please don’t touch the meat?

Wait, people are supposed to keep the bad pages? I thought the whole point of a sketchbook was to make it look like you never made a mistake. Sounds like your designer friend was just mad her own book isn't as tidy as yours, right? Honestly though, I've done the same thing, tearing out pages I hated before anyone could peek. Maybe the messy stuff is where the good ideas actually hide.

The "we can figure out the budget later" line is the biggest red flag in this whole business. That phrase basically means they want you to do all the guesswork and then they'll try to talk you down after you've already put in the hours. I've learned that when a client avoids numbers that early, it's because they don't have a real number in mind, or they're hoping you'll invent a low one they can agree to. Sending a revised quote is fine, but I'd make it a big number with clear extras broken out as separate line items. That way you're not committing to the mess, you're just showing them what the mess costs. And if they balk at the price, you already know what the working relationship would be like, so you're not losing anything.