Learn Hardcore German: Durch meinen Teilzeitjob im Café kriege ich meinen Studienalltag finanziert, ohne meine Lernzeit zu sehr zu verkürzen. - Through my part‑time job at the café I get my everyday studies financed without shortening my study time too much.

mit would suggest “with” in the sense of “together with” or simply “using,” and would sound odd here.
wegen means “because of” and focuses on reason/cause, not on the method of financing.

So durch is used because the job is the means by which the studies are financed.

What case is meinen Teilzeitjob and why is it in that case?

meinen Teilzeitjob is in the accusative case.

Reason: durch is one of the prepositions that always takes the accusative.

Nominative: mein Teilzeitjob
Accusative: meinen Teilzeitjob

Because it follows durch, it must be meinen Teilzeitjob.

Is kriege the same as bekomme? Is it informal?

Yes, kriege (from kriegen) is very close in meaning to bekomme (“I get / receive”).

kriege is colloquial / informal.
bekomme is neutral and standard.

In writing (especially formal writing), you would normally prefer:

…bekomme ich meinen Studienalltag finanziert…

In everyday spoken German, kriege is extremely common and sounds natural and casual.

How does the structure kriege ich meinen Studienalltag finanziert work grammatically?

This is a “bekommen/kriegen + object + past participle” construction. It means something like:

Ich kriege meinen Studienalltag finanziert.
≈ “I get my everyday study life funded / financed.”

Grammatically:

ich – subject
kriege – finite verb
meinen Studienalltag – direct object (accusative)
finanziert – object complement (a past participle describing what happens to the object)

So you could rephrase it more straightforwardly as:

Ich finanziere meinen Studienalltag durch meinen Teilzeitjob im Café.

But kriege … finanziert emphasizes that you manage to have it financed, not necessarily that you yourself actively provide all the money.

What exactly does the compound noun Studienalltag mean?

Studienalltag is a compound:

Studium = studies (at university)
Alltag = everyday life, daily routine

Together, Studienalltag means “everyday life as a student / my daily study routine” — everything connected with daily study life (lectures, books, transport, meals etc.), not just tuition fees.

Why is finanziert at the end of the first clause?

German uses the “sentence bracket” (Satzklammer):

The conjugated verb (kriege) goes in second position.
Other parts (including non-finite verb forms like participles) are pushed toward the end of the clause.

So in:

Durch meinen Teilzeitjob im Café kriege ich meinen Studienalltag finanziert, …

kriege is the second-position verb, and the participle finanziert closes the clause at the end. This is normal word order in German when you have constructions like kriegen/bekommen + Partizip II.

How does the construction ohne meine Lernzeit zu sehr zu verkürzen work?

This is the “ohne … zu + infinitive” construction, which means “without doing X” when the subject is the same as in the main clause.

Structure here:

ohne – preposition (“without”)
meine Lernzeit – accusative object of ohne (“my study time”)
zu … verkürzen – infinitive phrase (“to shorten”)
zu sehr – “too much / too greatly”, modifies verkürzen

Meaning: “without shortening my study time too much.”

If you wanted a full subclause, you could say:

…ohne dass ich meine Lernzeit zu sehr verkürze.

But ohne … zu + infinitive is more compact and very common.

Why is meine Lernzeit also accusative?

meine Lernzeit is in the accusative because it is the object of the preposition ohne.

Like durch, ohne is a preposition that always takes the accusative.

Nominative: meine Lernzeit
Accusative: meine Lernzeit (same form here, because Lernzeit is feminine, but grammatically it’s accusative)

Can zu sehr be placed somewhere else, or must it be before zu verkürzen?

In the given sentence:

ohne meine Lernzeit zu sehr zu verkürzen

zu sehr belongs together as an adverb phrase meaning “too much / excessively”, and it modifies verkürzen.

Natural options include:

ohne meine Lernzeit zu sehr zu verkürzen (as in the sentence)
ohne meine Lernzeit allzu sehr zu verkürzen (slightly more formal)

You will also sometimes see:

ohne zu sehr meine Lernzeit zu verkürzen

That variant shifts the focus slightly (emphasizing not overdoing it overall), but all are understandable. The key rule is: zu must be directly before the infinitive verkürzen, and sehr (or zu sehr) must be close enough to the verb it modifies.

Why does the sentence start with Durch meinen Teilzeitjob im Café instead of Ich?

German main clauses are verb-second (V2), but almost anything can come before the verb in the first position (the “Vorfeld”).

Here, the speaker chooses to put the prepositional phrase first:

Durch meinen Teilzeitjob im Café – element in first position
kriege – verb in second position
ich – subject after the verb

This is a normal way to:

Highlight how the financing works (through the job),
Make the sentence flow better, and
Vary style compared to always starting with Ich.

You could also say:

Ich kriege durch meinen Teilzeitjob im Café meinen Studienalltag finanziert, …

Both are correct; the word order just changes the emphasis.

Why do we say im Café instead of in dem Café, and what case is used?

im is simply the contracted form of in dem:

in
- dem → im

So im Café = in dem Café = “in the café.”

Case: dative.

in can take either accusative (movement into) or dative (location).
Here, it describes a location (where the job is), not movement towards it, so we use dative: im Café.

What is the difference between Teilzeitjob and Nebenjob?

Both can describe a job a student might have, but the nuances differ:

Teilzeitjob – part-time job, focuses on the number of hours (less than full time).
Nebenjob – side job, focuses on it being in addition to a main activity (like studying or a main job).

For a student:

A job in a café is typically both a Teilzeitjob and a Nebenjob.
In this sentence, Teilzeitjob emphasizes the reduced working hours, which fits well with the idea of not cutting study time too much.