This is the weekend to save on state sales tax.

Shoppers will save at least 5 cents on every dollar spent for back-to-school clothing and supplies, energy-saving appliances and generators, chainsaws and other hurricane preparedness items.

The Virginia General Assembly approved the sales tax holiday and set it to begin the first Friday each August, which this year is Aug. 7, the state Department of Taxation has announced.

The holiday from paying the 5.3 percent sales tax on certain goods lasts through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9.

The reason so many different goods will be exempt from the sales tax: The legislature combined three previously separate sales tax holidays into one.

For more information on the goods that will be exempt, visit www.tax.virginia.gov and click the “Learn more” link in the sales tax holiday slide on the website.