I think it might be better for you to specify which Soviet Republic you live in. The living standards of Ukrainian or Russian farmer were different from those of an Uzbek or Tajik one for example.
As has been noted, this will vary WILDLY depending not only on what Soviet republic you happen to reside in at the time, where in that republic you happen to reside, and also depending on who you are, ethnically, professionally, and politically.
But also one needs to understand that in the cases of most (but not all) Soviet republics the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the declaration of national sovereignty and independence were two (and sometimes even three) different events with different attributable effects and causes.
As such I can only give an approximate general overview of some of the notable developments from that period in Armenia in particular, though some are applicable elsewhere too.
In the case of Armenia, for example, the news of the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 did not, in itself, constitute a major practical shift, even though a lot of practical changes were indeed taking place at the same time.
Arguably of at least equal practical significance is the cessation, on the 7th of February 1990, of the Soviet Communist Party's monopoly on political power in the Soviet Union. This led to all fifteen Soviet Republics holding various forms of local elections and subsequently passing national declarations of sovereignty or independence. This is one of the large practical changes for you - competitive elections were now a thing, and if you did not agree with the policies of the Communist Party for the first time you could hope for your views to be represented.
Armenia was not among the first Soviet republics to declare sovereignty, being the 12th to pass its Declaration of Armenian Independence on the 23rd of August 1990, but it was among the earlier ones to start a formal process with independence as its end goal. This meant that as of that date Soviet Constitution and Soviet laws no longer had legal power on the territory of the Armenian SSR and were replaced by national equivalents, as well as renaming the country to Republic of Armenia.
At this stage, in practical terms, unless you were a member of the Communist Party, this wouldn't have had immediate practical effect on an average person's life. Your taxes would not be contributing to the central budget, but rather the national one, and you would no longer be conscripted in the Soviet Armed forces, which would be replaced by national ones. But that opened a path to other reforms and changes that will have an effect.
Armenian authorities prevented the Soviet-wide referendum on the status of the Soviet Union (asking whether you considered it necessary to preserve the Soviet Union as a renewed federation of sovereign republics) from taking place on Armenian territory and held their own referendum on independence on the 21st of September 1991, where the majority voted for independence. Two days later Armenia formally became independent. The Soviet Union itself dissolved in late December of that same year.
One of the unique practical effects it had in Armenia was the scaling down of reconstruction efforts following the destructive Spitak earthquake in 1988. This earthquake led to the deaths of around 40 thousand people, injuring more than 100 thousand, and leaving cities of Spitak, Gyumri (then Leninakan), and Vanadzor (then Kirovakan) in ruins, also nearly leveling several nearby villages. Following the earthquake the Soviet government made an unprecedented appeal for international assistance, which saw more than 100 countries, including the United States contributing substantial amounts of humanitarian assistance. However, the reconstruction were far from finished by the time Armenia declared its independence. That, and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union meant that the assistance of ex-Soviet republics was no longer readily available.
Apart from that, most of what I've written so far largely concerns politics and doesn't directly address the gist of the question, but it serves to illustrate that the dissolution of the Soviet Union did not happen overnight - it was a process that developed at different speeds in different areas, making some dates largely nominal depending on where you are. So as a more direct answer to your question the news of the dissolution of the Soviet Union would not have surprised you and neither would they in themselves have had a major effect on your day-to-day activities at that stage. All of the major changes were either already underway, or wouldn't be felt for months or years after the dissolution itself. For example, Armenia kept the Soviet rouble as its official currency for two years after its independence, and only switched to drams after the 1993 currency reform in Russia.
More broadly, the situation in the Soviet Union was already unraveling years before the dissolution took place, with arguably more practical effects that the formal dissolution. The economic conditions in the last years of the Soviet Union was borderline catastrophic in many areas. A lot of basic foodstuffs were already being rationed, the availability of goods outside of a few select areas was becoming dismal, and the central authorities no longer had the control over the national affairs of SSRs as they once did.
In Armenia's case the conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region was already dipping into the open hostilities as early as late 1989. That same year Azerbaijan instituted an effective economic blockade of Armenian SSR, which had no direct border with Russia, its main export market AND the source of most of its imports, upon which Armenian economy continues to rely to this day. After the dissolution Turkey also joined the blockade further exacerbating the economic situation in Armenia. The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh entered its hot phase after the dissolution, so depending on where you lived you could have been directly affected by the hostilities, or potentially get involved in them as a combatant depending on your age and gender. This conflict was one of the unique aspects of Armenian (and Azerbaijani) post-Soviet developments. Apart from the open hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, the aforementioned blockade would be a big dampener on post-Soviet development. For example, due to the effects of the blockade, as well as general economic downturn, gasoline prices would also increase substantially, leading to a somewhat unique mass shift to propane-converted vehicles.
As a result of all these things compounding on another, Armenia experienced one of the largest drops in GDP among the post-Soviet states (depending on who you ask between 40-60% in 1992 alone). While most post-Soviet republics ended food rationing sometime around 1992-1993, you would still have to deal with food rations for things like bread as late as 1995 in some parts of the country. The liberalization of prices, meant to alleviate the availability of goods, would also lead to sky-rocketing inflation.
As was the case in, for example, Georgia, you were likely to lose centrally-provided heating and electricity as a result of the deteriorating economic conditions (that is if you had them in the first place). With you residing in a rural area some of this might not have had as severe an impact as it did in the cities on account of you likely still relying on burning solid fuels for heating in winter (something that urban dwellers would now have to adopt) and with the electricity supply already being spotty as is. Notably you also had the benefit of being able to grow your own food.
One of the important arguably positive changes for you was the redistribution of (farm) land from collective farms to individual owners. This meant that you were now potentially an owner of a plot of land that you could work and sell products off. However, this process was started before the formal dissolution once again, so you would not have necessarily associated it as much with the dissolution as you did with the independence. As a rural citizen, or specifically a peasant who sold produce, you now had the advantage of being able to sell your goods at market prices, but the overall economic downturn was such that the net effect was still overwhelmingly negative. Due to this you would also be less likely to be severely affected by the collapse of many hitherto state-run companies that could no longer compete in conditions of the free market without state-imposed price controls and subsidies. To this day Armenia has one of the highest unemployment rates in the post-Soviet space.
Due to all this around one-quarter of the population would also emigrate abroad, with many more opting to become occassional labour migrants in Russia due to higher wages and better employment opportunities. At the same time, you would see an influx of refugees fleeing the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, which, again, would affect different regions differently.
I hope this answers some parts of your question in general terms. As I said, there was a lot of variation depending on which Soviet republic we have in mind, and even within this republic different regions would experience things differently, so this is the best I can come up with in this context.