The pump nozzle plunged into his car?s gas tank, and Raymond Griffith braced for the worst. The price began its climb.

“It?s breaking me,” Griffith, 46, of Baltimore, said, as he filled up his Chevrolet Malibu Friday at the Royal Farms in Hampden, where regular gas cost $3.79 a gallon. “It?s eating into your daily expenses. [My family is] really being careful with our spending, clipping coupons and things like that.”